Going live checklist

I'll start the list..

1. That you have freshly made coffee (and milk if you prefer that), cause it's going to be a long/nervous/exciting night.

Ive got a few.

• Make sure your git repo is ready. Your production branch should be stable, you should have a dedicated dev branch and a system for versioning/tagging. Starting off with a messy git repo and no plan for patching is going to lead to headaches.
• If you dont have a git repo or some other versioning system, get on it.
• Run gulp wirh the --production flag to minify all your assets.
• Make sure all your images are web ready.

Note: a lot of the following is assuming a difficult deployment over the top of an existing legacy site. This is pretty much a worst-case scenario. If your needs are simpler, then that's great and you don't need all this worry!

Do a dry run first, on your staging site (you do have a staging site, right?). This is especially important if you have complex deployment requirements (e.g. migrating customer data from an old website / DB).

For those complex deployments, write step-by-step instructions for the entire process, then do a dry run following them to the letter. Repeat until you are confident your instructions are correct. Also consider doing this with a partner checking you, who will also be there for the live deployment.

Have a plan for how you will deal with unexpected problems. These can make your deployment take longer than you expect. If there is a current live site, what are you going to do? Did you just break it, or can you revert? Is there a critical stage in your deployment where you "can't" back out anymore? Consider these issues in light of the effect on the business. How bad is downtime for the business? What happens if (for example) payment webhooks are not being received?

If you're updating an existing live site, make sure the live site is backed up somehow. Don't forget the database!

Test as much as possible before going live. Run your tests in an environment that's as similar as possible to the live site.

• Make sure launch day isn't Friday.

• Prepare yourself, get a coffee, red bull or whatever works for you. It may be a long one.

• Make sure all testing is golden, UI/UX is solid (as long as it works, doesn't have to be 100%)

• Create a release/tag with change log notes, and update your customers

• Create a game plan / plan of attack and a fallback / contingency plan

  • What are the exact steps to perform for any data or server migrations?
  • How do we perform the deployment
  • How do we backup the app and existing data pre-deploy
  • If shit hits the fan and something goes sideways, what's the procedure and who is involved in restoring back the original version, finding and fixing the issue and re-deploying.
  • How do we directly contact any third parties that are involved in the deployment
  • etc..

• Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Measure twice, cut once.

Those are the general rules we follow but make sure you backup , Backup, BACKUP! :) The checklist requirements change based on the project scope, so a legacy project would vary greatly to a newer Laravel project.