Smoke Tests, Sanity Checks, and Release Gates

On merge (did we break the build), on deploy to staging (did config survive), and post-deploy to production (is it actually up) — the same cheap suite, three vantage points.

Post-deploy verification with automatic alerting — the gap between 'deployed' and 'verified working' is where the worst incidents grow, silently.

Skipping the discipline this article describes until an incident, audit, or stalled project forces it — every practice above is cheaper adopted early than retrofitted under pressure.