Project Governance and Launch Readiness
What to know
Governance covers scope, schedule, budget, risk, and quality across discovery, design, build, test, and launch. Know methodology (Agile/Scrum vs. waterfall) and artifacts: backlog, sprints, definition of done, change control. Understand environments (local, integration, staging, production) and deployment (build, static content deploy, DI compile, schema/data patches).
Launch readiness: UAT, performance/load testing, security review, go-live checklist, data migration validation, SEO redirects, and rollback plan. Understand post-launch support (hypercare), monitoring, and change management. Know risk register and RACI for accountability.
Traps
Questions test whether a step belongs to UAT (business validation) vs. QA (functional testing). Another trap: skipping performance testing or data migration validation before launch. Watch deployment order - DI compile and static content deploy must precede production switch, and schema/data patches run on deploy. Also beware assuming a launch is "done" without rollback and hypercare plans.
Rule of thumb
Gate launch on: UAT sign-off, performance test results, security review, validated data migration, SEO redirect map, and a tested rollback plan.
Worked example
A migration moves 100k SKUs. Validate counts, prices, and URLs in staging, map 301 redirects for old URLs, and confirm rollback before cutover.