What does production-ready mean?
Everyone says it; few define it. Here it is as a list you can check, not a feeling.
In short
Production-ready describes software that is safe to put in front of real users: access is enforced where the data lives, changes are tested before they ship, releases can be rolled back, failures are noticed and alerted on, and data can be restored. It is a checkable state of the system, not a judgement about how finished the app looks.
Also called: Production-grade, Launch-ready
Why it matters when your prototype goes to production
A prototype only has to work when you are watching. A production system has to keep working when nobody is: at 3am, under a traffic spike, when a payment provider retries a webhook, when a user tries something the screens never offered. Production-ready is the list of things that make that true.
The list
| Area | Production-ready means |
|---|---|
| Access | Rules enforced by the database and the server, not only hidden in the interface |
| Secrets | Keys kept on the server, rotated, never in the browser |
| Testing | Automated tests run on every change before it ships |
| Releases | A staging environment, and a way to roll back |
| Running | Errors and slowdowns are noticed and someone is alerted |
| Recovery | Backups exist and a restore has been tried |
Each line is something an engineer can show you, which is the point: if nobody can show it, it is not done.
Common questions
How long does it take to make an app production-ready?
It depends on how much the app does. Three of our case studies give the figure: Bell took 27 working days, Looph 28 and Ekko 36.
Related terms
Read next
Sources
More on this: Production architecture & security · All glossary terms
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