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Implementation Roadmap

Phased delivery plan for the Release Orchestrator implementation.

Status: Planned Source: Architecture Advisory Section 14 Related: Implementation Guide, Test Structure

Overview

The Release Orchestrator is delivered in 8 phases over 34 weeks, progressively building from foundational infrastructure to full plugin ecosystem support.


Phased Delivery Plan

Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1-4)

Goal: Core infrastructure and basic release management

Week Deliverables
Week 1 Database schema migration; INTHUB integration-manager; connection-profiles
Week 2 ENVMGR environment-manager; target-registry (basic)
Week 3 RELMAN component-registry; version-manager; release-manager
Week 4 Basic release CRUD APIs; CLI commands; integration tests

Exit Criteria:

  • Can create environments with config
  • Can register components with image repos
  • Can create releases with pinned digests
  • Can list/search releases

Certified Path: Manual release creation; no deployment yet


Phase 2: Workflow Engine (Weeks 5-8)

Goal: Workflow execution capability

Week Deliverables
Week 5 WORKFL step-registry; built-in step types (approval, policy-gate, notify)
Week 6 WORKFL workflow-designer; workflow template CRUD
Week 7 WORKFL workflow-engine; DAG execution; state machine
Week 8 Step executor; retry logic; timeout handling; workflow run APIs

Exit Criteria:

  • Can create workflow templates via API
  • Can execute workflows with approval steps
  • Workflow state machine handles all transitions
  • Step retries work correctly

Certified Path: Approval-only workflows; no deployment execution yet


Phase 3: Promotion & Decision (Weeks 9-12)

Goal: Promotion workflow with security gates

Week Deliverables
Week 9 PROMOT promotion-manager; approval-gateway
Week 10 PROMOT decision-engine; security gate integration with SCANENG
Week 11 Gate registry; freeze window gate; SoD enforcement
Week 12 Promotion APIs; "Why blocked?" endpoint; decision record

Exit Criteria:

  • Can request promotion
  • Security gates evaluate scan verdicts
  • Approval workflow enforces SoD
  • Decision record captures gate results

Certified Path: Promotions with security + approval gates; no deployment yet


Phase 4: Deployment Execution (Weeks 13-18)

Goal: Deploy to Docker/Compose targets

Week Deliverables
Week 13 AGENTS agent-core; agent registration; heartbeat
Week 14 AGENTS agent-docker; Docker host deployment
Week 15 AGENTS agent-compose; Compose deployment
Week 16 DEPLOY deploy-orchestrator; artifact-generator
Week 17 DEPLOY rollback-manager; version sticker writing
Week 18 RELEVI evidence-collector; evidence-signer; audit-exporter

Exit Criteria:

  • Agents can register and receive tasks
  • Docker deployment works with digest verification
  • Compose deployment writes lock files
  • Rollback restores previous version
  • Evidence packets generated for deployments

Certified Path: Full promotion -> deployment flow for Docker/Compose


Phase 5: UI & Polish (Weeks 19-22)

Goal: Web console for release orchestration

Week Deliverables
Week 19 Dashboard components; metrics widgets
Week 20 Environment overview; release detail screens
Week 21 Workflow editor (graph); run visualization
Week 22 Promotion UI; approval queue; "Why blocked?" modal

Exit Criteria:

  • Dashboard shows operational metrics
  • Can manage environments/releases via UI
  • Can create/edit workflows in graph editor
  • Can approve promotions via UI

Certified Path: Complete v1 user experience


Phase 6: Progressive Delivery (Weeks 23-26)

Goal: A/B releases and canary deployments

Week Deliverables
Week 23 PROGDL ab-manager; target-group A/B
Week 24 PROGDL canary-controller; stage execution
Week 25 PROGDL traffic-router; Nginx plugin
Week 26 Canary UI; traffic visualization; health monitoring

Exit Criteria:

  • Can create A/B release with variations
  • Canary controller advances stages based on health
  • Traffic router shifts weights
  • Rollback on health failure works

Certified Path: Target-group A/B; Nginx router-based A/B


Phase 7: Extended Targets (Weeks 27-30)

Goal: ECS and Nomad support; SSH/WinRM agentless

Week Deliverables
Week 27 AGENTS agent-ssh; SSH remote executor
Week 28 AGENTS agent-winrm; WinRM remote executor
Week 29 AGENTS agent-ecs; ECS deployment
Week 30 AGENTS agent-nomad; Nomad deployment

Exit Criteria:

  • SSH deployment works with script execution
  • WinRM deployment works with PowerShell
  • ECS task definition updates work
  • Nomad job submissions work

Certified Path: All target types operational


Phase 8: Plugin Ecosystem (Weeks 31-34)

Goal: Full plugin system; external integrations

Week Deliverables
Week 31 PLUGIN plugin-registry; plugin-loader
Week 32 PLUGIN plugin-sandbox; plugin-sdk
Week 33 GitHub plugin; GitLab plugin
Week 34 Jenkins plugin; Vault plugin

Exit Criteria:

  • Can install and configure plugins
  • Plugins can contribute step types
  • Plugins can contribute integrations
  • Plugin sandbox enforces limits

Certified Path: GitHub + Harbor + Docker/Compose + Vault


Resource Requirements

Team Structure

Role Count Responsibilities
Tech Lead 1 Architecture decisions; code review; unblocking
Backend Engineers 4 Module development; API implementation
Frontend Engineers 2 Web console; dashboard; workflow editor
DevOps Engineer 1 CI/CD; infrastructure; agent deployment
QA Engineer 1 Test automation; integration testing
Technical Writer 0.5 Documentation; API docs; user guides

Infrastructure Requirements

Component Specification
PostgreSQL Primary database; 16+ recommended; read replicas for scale
Redis Job queues; caching; session storage
Object Storage S3-compatible; evidence packets; large artifacts
Container Runtime Docker; for plugin sandboxes
Kubernetes Optional; for Stella core deployment (not required for targets)

Risk Mitigation

Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation
Agent security complexity High High Early security review; penetration testing; mTLS implementation in Phase 4
Workflow state machine edge cases Medium High Comprehensive state transition tests; chaos testing
Plugin sandbox escapes Low Critical Security audit; capability restrictions; resource limits
Database migration issues Medium Medium Staged rollout; rollback scripts; data validation
UI performance with large workflows Medium Medium Virtual rendering; lazy loading; performance testing
Integration compatibility High Medium Abstract connector interface; extensive integration tests

Success Metrics

Phase Key Metrics
Phase 1 Release creation time < 5s; API latency p99 < 200ms
Phase 2 Workflow execution reliability > 99.9%
Phase 3 Gate evaluation time < 500ms; SoD enforcement 100%
Phase 4 Deployment success rate > 99%; rollback time < 60s
Phase 5 UI initial load < 2s; real-time update latency < 1s
Phase 6 Canary rollback trigger time < 30s
Phase 7 All target type coverage with unified API
Phase 8 Plugin sandbox isolation verified by security audit

References