RollbackPlan

A RollbackPlan is a formal plan used in change management and release engineering to specify how a system will be returned to a known good state after a deployment, incident, or failed change. It documents the conditions under which a rollback is initiated, the sequence of steps to restore functionality, and the criteria for success.

Core components typically include the scope and applicability, rollback criteria and triggers (for example, error rates, latency, failed transactions), rollback procedures and steps, required resources, and roles and responsibilities. It also covers testing and validation plans, timing constraints, communication and escalation paths, risk assessment, and change history.

The typical workflow begins with planning and approval before deployment, followed by monitoring for defined signals. If thresholds are exceeded or errors occur, the rollback is initiated according to the predefined steps, with automated or manual execution of reverting changes, followed by verification to ensure service restoration and data integrity.

Rollbacks are common in software deployments, database migrations, and infrastructure changes, and are supported by practices such as versioning, snapshots, and canary or blue-green strategies. A RollbackPlan differs from ad hoc reversals by providing a documented, auditable process that aligns with governance and regulatory requirements.

Related concepts include rollback versus revert, feature flags as a mechanism to reduce rollback scope, and post-rollback review to capture lessons learned.