Finaling: Launch

In the Finaling Phase the game is tuned and balanced to provide a rounded and rewarding experience for the player. The focus in this phase is on reviews and playtests in order to acquire internal and external feedback from a wide variety of sources. Feedback analysis, prioritization and implementation takes place within the established change request processes relative to the remaining production timeline.

In the PEOPLE category, the team structure is re-organized for polishing and debugging, while again allowing flexibility for Strike Teams to emerge for targeted debugging challenges. Team support and team health monitoring is especially important during this Phase as the team wrestles with complex debugging, quality and scheduling challenges driving to product Launch.

In the PRODUCT category, the focus is on refining, polishing, and debugging the player experience to ensure expectations are met at the utmost quality relative to the scheduling constraints. Challenging prioritization decisions may need to be made, such as delaying some items to post-launch or cutting features & content outright, in order to improve quality overall. In-software reviews and internal & external playtests remain a critical mechanism for facilitating those difficult decisions as the product hits its Beta deliverable ("Beta" = fully functional, feature complete, content complete, and tuned), followed by its drive to Launch (final tuning and fully debugged for release).

In the PROCESS category, the focus remains on the project's RAID areas during this critical time of development. The Change Request processes are also crucial, preventing additional scope and regression challenges. Debugging dashboards are also especially important in order to monitor progress against quality and schedule constraints. These, in turn, are directly tied to the project’s soft and hard lock processes as it secures its Beta build and, finally, the product Launch itself.

After Beta is the final opportunity to fix bugs and make improvements before Launch. Changes are limited to progression blocking issues, system performance and optimizations except in very targeted, risk-assessed situations. The certification process will also be underway, with the certification results influencing the final changes and adjustments that can be accepted into the product.

In order to ship, the team must pass the Launch Production Gate, which validates the launching scope, stability and quality. The gate's deliverables are equivalent to the Beta gate, with the exception of the in-software section: