Before a Go Live or a Production Deployment we should pay attention to some important steps: 

Before

1. Agree a date and time with the client (hours or days in advance)
   Important: We only make production deployments until Thursdays before midday
2. Ensure to mark the agreed-upon date in the calendar
3. Make sure the date wont affect client’s operations
4. Make sure the PipeCodes support team is available in case something goes wrong (check supports team availability, including flex-friday)
5. Backup all the files and databases before the deployment
6. Prepare a rollback action plan (put back the backup files and databases, etc)
7. Monitoring and Alerting Setup: Ensure monitoring and alerting systems are in place to quickly identify and respond to any issues that arise post-deployment.
8. Documentation – In the project folder, create a folder for Prod deployments where you or the team will create a document per each production deployment stating:

   Scheduled Date
   Solved Issues
   Changed Files
   Expected result after deployment
   Performance Baselines: Establish performance baselines pre-deployment to compare against post-deployment.
   This helps in quickly identifying performance degradation.
   Final result – Improvements (performance, etc) and problems solved and tested.

1. Turn on maintenance mode on the system, if required and if you have it
   Points 7 and 8 will avoid data loss or issues reported by the client/users
2. Execute the deployment process – each project must have a document stating this
3. Ends the configuration of payment methods (IfThenPay, PayPal, MB) – they only allow you to end the configuration when you go live
4. Finish setting up Mailchimp or email marketing platform – only possible after go live
   
5. Clear all the server caches
   • Nginx cache in Cpanel
   • Restart webserver
   • Change the date on the script files being loaded (WordPress example: <script src=”myfile.js?v=MyCurrentDate”></script>)

1. TESTING
   Make sure the task and possible affected areas is tested again in production
   If it’s an ecommerce, make sure to test a full checkout journey (VAT rates must be pre-configured in the invoicing platform and on the products; confirm with the customer whether the price of the products is with or without VAT included)
   Test all the conversion forms
   Other systems – The project must have a clear testing journey defined for critical things to be tested at every deployment
   When testing, use always testing data: Use emails from mailinator, a chrome extension allows us to pre-fill forms – checkhere.
    
2. INTEGRATIONS
   Test all the major integrations are working
   Specially the ones associated with form submissions
   Ask the client to verify and notify him when they can proceed.