Emergency Release

Emergency release procedures handle critical situations requiring immediate design system updates. These situations include severe security vulnerabilities, data-destroying bugs, or issues causing widespread production failures. Emergency releases prioritize speed while maintaining minimum necessary quality controls.

What Is an Emergency Release

An emergency release is an unscheduled publication triggered by critical issues that cannot wait for normal processes. It represents the highest urgency tier of release activity. Emergency releases happen rarely but require prepared procedures to execute effectively under pressure.

Emergency releases differ from hotfixes in severity and urgency. Hotfixes address important issues quickly. Emergency releases address existential issues immediately. The threshold for emergency status should be high to preserve process integrity.

How Emergency Releases Work

Emergency release procedures define activation criteria, execution steps, and follow-up activities. Preparation before emergencies enables effective response during them.

Activation determines when emergency status is appropriate. Criteria might include actively exploited security vulnerabilities, bugs destroying production data, or issues causing complete service unavailability for many consumers. Clear criteria prevent overreaction to merely urgent situations.

Execution follows accelerated but controlled steps. An incident commander coordinates activities. The fix is developed, reviewed minimally, and tested against critical paths. Deployment happens as soon as testing passes. Communication alerts consumers immediately.

Follow-up addresses process debt and prevents recurrence. Comprehensive testing runs after the emergency. Documentation catches up. Retrospectives analyze what happened and how to prevent similar emergencies. Any shortcuts taken during emergency must be resolved.

Key Considerations

• Reserve emergency status for truly critical situations
• Document procedures before emergencies occur
• Designate incident commanders and contact lists
• Maintain deployment capability at all times
• Conduct thorough post-incident reviews

Common Questions

Who should have authority to declare an emergency?

Emergency declaration authority should be clearly assigned. Too narrow authority risks delays when the designated person is unavailable. Too broad authority risks inappropriate emergency declarations.

Common approaches include a primary designator (such as the team lead) with specified alternates. On-call rotation can include emergency declaration authority. Clear escalation paths enable reaching decision-makers quickly regardless of time zone or availability.

The person declaring emergency should have enough context to assess severity. Technical understanding helps evaluate impact. Business context helps assess urgency. Combining perspectives, either in one person or through quick consultation, improves declaration decisions.

How should teams communicate during emergency releases?

Communication during emergencies must be fast, clear, and reach affected consumers. Multiple channels increase the likelihood of reaching consumers quickly.

Status pages provide a central source of truth. Updating the status page immediately upon emergency declaration keeps consumers informed. Regular updates during response maintain transparency even when the situation is uncertain.

Direct notification through email, Slack, or other channels reaches consumers who may not check status pages. Keeping messages brief with links to detailed information balances speed with completeness.

After resolution, comprehensive communication explains what happened, what was fixed, and what consumers should do (usually update immediately). Post-mortem summaries, when appropriate, build consumer confidence through transparency.

Summary

Emergency release procedures handle critical situations requiring immediate response. Clear activation criteria prevent overuse. Prepared procedures enable effective execution under pressure. Thorough follow-up addresses process debt and prevents recurrence.