Artifact: Backout Plan
A backout plan defines the criteria and procedures to be followed if a release into production needs to be rolled back.
Domains: Deployment
Purpose
The purpose of this work product is for the development team to provide, in one document, all the information needed by the production support organization to determine if a rollback is needed, who will authorize it, how it will be performed, etc.
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Process Usage
Description
Main Description

While someone on the development team normally authors a draft version of the Backout Plan, the Deployment Engineer is ultimately responsible for its contents and existence. A backout plan typically answers the following questions:

  • Under what circumstances will a rollback be required? Or conversely, under what circumstances will the deployment be considered a success?
  • What is the time period within which a rollback can take place?
  • Which authorizing agent will make the decision to revert?
  • Who will perform the rollback and how soon after the decision has been made will the rollback be performed?
  • What procedures (manual and automated) will be followed to execute the rollback?
  • What other contingency measures or available workarounds should be considered?
  • What is the expected time required to perform a reversion?
  • What are the communication procedures required in the event of a backout?
  • Has the Backout Plan been successfully tested?