When would you require approval before production deployment, and what should the approval check?

Release approval gates and business risk

Explains when production approvals are useful and how to avoid turning them into empty bureaucracy.

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TL;DR

I would use approval gates for production deployments, especially when the change affects critical flows, data, security, or external customers. Approval should confirm that the build passed, tests ran, migration risk is understood, release notes are clear, and rollback or roll-forward options are known. It should not be just someone clicking approve without context.

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Release governance, risk-based approvals, production safety, and business impact.

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Why this question matters
Approval gates can protect production or become meaningless ceremony. The difference is whether they are tied to real risk.
I would use approval gates for production deployments, especially when the change affects critical flows, data, security, or external customers. Approval should confirm that the build passed, tests ran, migration risk is understood, release notes are clear, and rollback or roll-forward options are known. It should not be just someone clicking approve without context.
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For example, a checkout/payment release should probably require approval with QA sign-off, migration notes, monitoring plan, and feature-flag status. A low-risk internal copy change may not need the same gate. The trade-off is that approvals reduce accidental releases but can slow delivery if applied equally to every change. I prefer risk-based approvals.

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Approving without reading release context.
Using the same approval for every change.
No owner for post-release monitoring.
Treating approval as replacement for tests.

When would you require approval before production deployment, and what should the approval check?

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