Deployment Checklist

checklist.md

Deployment Checklist

Pre-Development

• Hosting is set up with full control panel access and we have log in credentials
• All email addresses are known for each form and all emails has been confirmed active
• Person responsible for DNS switch knows client's current email management service and understands how to route the DNS

Post-Development

• Person responsible for deployment has obtained SSH access to server
• All required system packages have been installed on the server e.g. recent versions of php (greater than v5.4, if at all possible), mysql, git, wp-cli, magerun (if Magento project), openssl (if https), rsync, etc.
• WordPress core and all plugins are up to date (unless a known conflict is present with a plugin; if that's the case, we should weigh if the plugin should be used in the first place)
• Site has been deployed to a staging environment hosted on the same server as the production environment
• Site is working properly on staging environment (final pre-launch testing phase should occur on this environment and not the development environment)
• robots.txt file is present on staging environment (to disable bot indexing)

Pre-Launch

• Analytics is installed and is using the correct analytics account per instructions from Project Manager
• All previous DNS records have been properly configured on new hosting environment (if applicable)
• All website auto response emails are properly setup with client specific information
• PPC tracking info is setup (if applicable)
• Current site's sitemap is saved for 301 redirects post-launch
• SEO team member has gone through all pages for proper title/meta description tags at a minimum, unless the project calls for greater content scrutiny
• All files and databases for old site have been archived locally (if applicable)
• All content has been input and all pages have been audited on staging environment (no dummy content)
• All forms have been tested with final email addresses and responses the have been received by the client
• E-commerce transaction's have been fully tested using dummy CC numbers and transactions verified with every payment gateway (if applicable)
• All required plugins have been installed and confirmed working (caching, analytics, SEO, etc.)
• All development files (src/, Gruntfile, Juicefile, Gemfile, bower.json, etc.) have been removed from web root
• Hidden files/directories are not publicly accessible (.git/, .htaccess, .env, etc.)
• All website traffic is directed to either the www or non-www domain (canonical issue)
• Old site pages are 301 redirected to new pages
• Final production stage has been tested and confirmed working before flipping the DNS switch (via /etc/hosts entry)

Post-Launch

• Site is working properly on production environment on all devices
• robots.txt file is not present on production environment
• All website traffic is confirmed to be directed to either the www or non-www domain
• All forms are again confirmed working and client is receiving all responses
• All website auto-response emails are confirmed working
• All 301 redirects are confirmed working

Really good list. Here's my notes:

1. what does the "CP access" acronym stand for?
2. All required system packages have been installed on the server (can we get a full list of "base" packages that will be required everywhere?)

@SnakeO, I didn't see this comment (you don't receive notifications for comments on gists, I guess). CP access stands for control panel access. As for what packages to install, it's depends on the project, really. I like staying up to date on PHP/MySQL versions when possible, and having wp-cli and git installed is a must for deployment. If it's a Magento install, having magerun installed is nice. Also if the site is using https, then openssl needs to be installed and configured.

I'll edit the list above to clarify those.