ReleaseCandidatePhase

ReleaseCandidatePhase is a stage in the software release lifecycle where a build is designated as a release candidate for final validation before general availability. It typically follows alpha and beta testing and precedes GA, focusing on confirming that the product meets functional requirements, quality attributes, and compatibility expectations.

During this phase, teams distribute the release candidate to broader sets of testers, including customers or internal stakeholders, and conduct acceptance, regression, performance, and security testing. Additional activities include verifying deployment and rollback procedures, validating data and migration paths, collecting user feedback, and ensuring that documentation, changelogs, and release notes are up to date. The RC build is tracked with traceability to requirements and defects, and monitoring is established to detect any new issues.

Criteria for progression from ReleaseCandidatePhase to General Availability typically include a defined set of acceptance criteria and the absence of blocking defects. Critical or high-severity issues should be resolved or documented with appropriate workarounds or mitigations. The build should be stable, reproducible, and demonstrably deployable in production-like environments, with security and compliance checks satisfied and operational readiness confirmed. A clear rollback plan and communications strategy are also required.

Governance for the phase usually involves a release manager or product owner, with sign-off from quality assurance, security, operations, and product stakeholders. The phase yields a final production release if criteria are met; if not, it may trigger a supplemental RC cycle or postponement until issues are addressed.