Deployment & MLOps Checklist for Prototypes

Packaging & reproducibility — checklist items

Select completed packaging and reproducibility checks. These reduce 'works on my machine' problems and speed recovery and handoffs.

Model + runtime packaged (container or reproducible artifact)

All artifacts (model, code, deps) are versioned and stored

Reproducible build/run scripts that recreate the artifact

Environment dependencies declared (requirements, wheels, Dockerfile, lockfile)

Training data snapshot or pointer with metadata

Owner (packaging)

Person or role responsible for packaging/reproducibility

Status (packaging)

Progress state for packaging tasks

Evidence links (packaging)

URLs or repo paths showing artifacts, CI logs, or reproducibility tests

Readiness score (packaging)

1 = not reproducible, 5 = fully reproducible and versioned

1.0 10.0

CI/CD & deployment pipeline — checklist items

Lightweight CI/CD reduces manual steps and enables reliable rollouts and rollbacks.

Automated build and artifact publishing

Automated unit and smoke tests for model code

Canary or blue/green deployment capability or clear rollout plan

Configuration as code (deployment manifests, infra as code)

Clear deploy and rollback playbook documented

Owner (CI/CD)

Status (CI/CD)

Readiness score (CI/CD)

1.0 10.0

Monitoring & alerting — checklist items

Choose metrics and alert thresholds that protect value and safety without noisy alerts.

Service-level metrics: latency, error rate, throughput

Model performance: key business metrics (accuracy, conversion, lift)

Data quality checks (missing fields, schema drift)

Infrastructure/cost monitoring for runaway bills

Alert rules with on-call routing and clear paging thresholds

Owner (monitoring)

Status (monitoring)

Readiness score (monitoring)

1.0 10.0

Retraining policy & data drift checks — checklist items

Decide what triggers retraining and who approves it. Avoid silent degradation.

Automated data drift detection (inputs and feature distributions)

Performance-based triggers tied to business KPIs

Path to collect labeled data and validate retrained models

Human approval gate and test-suite for candidate models

Defined retraining cadence (if appropriate)

Owner (retraining & data)

Status (retraining)

Readiness score (retraining)

1.0 10.0

Rollback & incident response — checklist items

A tested rollback path keeps user harm and business risk low.

Documented rollback steps and owners

Rollback tested in staging or canary

Quick access to previous stable artifacts

Incident postmortem and learning process defined

Communication plan for customers/stakeholders

Owner (rollback & incidents)

Status (rollback)

Readiness score (rollback)

1.0 10.0

Cost & data safeguards — checklist items

Protect the project from runaway costs and data exposure.

Cost alerts and budget guardrails

Data access controls and least privilege

PII handling and minimal retention policy documented

Data retention and purge policy

Owner (cost & data safeguards)

Status (cost & data)

Readiness score (cost & data)

1.0 10.0

Ownership, runbooks & learning loop — checklist items

Clear ownership and a learning loop prevent orphaned models and lost knowledge.

Clear service and model owner identified

Runbook for common ops tasks and escalation

On-call rota or designated contact

Post-deploy learning captured and scheduled reviews

Owner (ops & learning)

Status (ownership)

Readiness score (ownership)

1.0 10.0

Path to graduate from prototype to scale — checklist items

Outline what is required before considering scaling (compliance, SLOs, capacity, cost model).

Service-level objectives and acceptance criteria defined

Capacity and performance plan for scale

Cost model and business case documented

Compliance/security/privacy review (if needed)

Owner (graduation path)

Status (graduation)

Readiness score (graduation)

1.0 10.0

Overall readiness score

Aggregate sense of whether the prototype is safe and maintainable in production. Use this with evidence and notes.

1.0 10.0

Overall notes & recommended next steps

Summarize key gaps, risks, and the action plan (iterate, harden, postpone, or rollback).

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Deployment & MLOps Checklist for Prototypes

Deployment & MLOps Checklist for Prototypes

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