> Document Version: 1.0 Document Owner: Acme Inc Next Review Date: 2027-03-19

Last updated: 2026-03-19

Project: nextjs-saas-example

Company: Acme Inc

## Related Documents

- Security Policy (`SECURITY.md`)
- Business Continuity Plan (`BUSINESSCONTINUITYPLAN.md`)
- Disaster Recovery Plan (`DISASTERRECOVERYPLAN.md`)

## 1. Purpose

This policy establishes the change management process for the nextjs-saas-example application. It defines requirements for code review, testing, deployment approval, rollback procedures, and change documentation. It supports compliance with SOC 2 CC8.1 (Change Management), ISO 27001 Annex A.12.1.2, and GDPR Article 32 (security of processing).

## 2. Scope

This policy applies to all changes to:

- Application source code
- Infrastructure configuration
- Database schemas and migrations
- Third-party service integrations
- Environment variables and secrets
- CI/CD pipeline configurations

## 3. CI/CD Infrastructure

No CI/CD configuration was detected in the project. It is strongly recommended to implement a CI/CD pipeline for:

1. Automated testing before deployment
2. Consistent deployment procedures
3. Audit trail for all changes
4. Rollback capabilities

## 4. Change Categories

Category | Description | Approval Required | Examples
--- | --- | --- | ---
Standard | Routine changes following established procedures | Peer review | Bug fixes, minor UI changes, dependency updates
Normal | Changes requiring additional review and testing | Lead + peer review | New features, API changes, schema migrations
Emergency | Critical fixes for production incidents | Post-deployment review | Security patches, data breach mitigation, service outages
Major | Significant architectural or infrastructure changes | CTO/VP Engineering + team lead | Database migrations, service rewrites, infrastructure changes

## 5. Code Review Requirements

### 5.1 Review Standards

Requirement | Standard | Applies To
--- | --- | ---
Minimum reviewers | 1 peer reviewer | All changes
Additional reviewers | 2 reviewers | Changes to auth, payment, PII handling
Review response time | Within 1 business day | Standard changes
Review response time | Within 4 hours | Emergency changes

### 5.2 Review Checklist

Every code review must verify:

- Code follows project coding standards and patterns
- Unit tests cover new functionality and edge cases
- No hardcoded secrets, credentials, or PII in code
- Database migrations are reversible
- API changes maintain backward compatibility (or are versioned)
- Error handling is comprehensive (no swallowed exceptions)
- Logging does not include sensitive data (passwords, tokens, PII)
- Dependencies are from trusted sources with acceptable licenses
- Payment-related changes comply with PCI DSS requirements
- No credit card data is logged or stored in plaintext
- AI model changes include updated model cards and disclosures
- AI input/output handling follows data minimization principles
- Authentication changes follow OWASP guidelines
- Session management changes maintain security properties

### 5.3 Automated Checks

The following automated checks should gate all pull requests:

Check | Purpose | Required to Pass
--- | --- | ---
Unit tests | Prevent regressions | Yes
Integration tests | Verify system behavior | Yes
Linting | Code quality and style | Yes
Type checking | Type safety | Yes
Security scanning | Vulnerability detection | Yes
License compliance | Open source license audit | Yes
Build verification | Compilation success | Yes

## 6. Deployment Approval Process

### 6.1 Approval Matrix

Change Category | Approvers | Environment
--- | --- | ---
Standard | Automated (CI passes) | Staging, then Production
Normal | Team lead approval | Staging, then Production
Emergency | Any senior engineer (post-review within 24h) | Direct to Production
Major | CTO/VP Engineering + affected team leads | Staging (extended soak), then Production

### 6.2 Deployment Steps

1. Pre-deployment

- All automated checks pass (CI green)
- Code review approved by required reviewers
- Deployment plan documented (for Normal/Major changes)
- Rollback plan verified

1. Staging deployment

- Deploy to staging environment
- Run smoke tests and integration tests
- Verify no performance regressions
- Minimum soak time: 1 hour (Standard), 24 hours (Normal), 48 hours (Major)

1. Production deployment

- Deploy during approved maintenance window (or progressively via canary/blue-green)
- Monitor error rates, latency, and key metrics
- Verify health checks pass
- Confirm no user-facing regressions

1. Post-deployment

- Update change log
- Notify stakeholders
- Monitor for 1 hour minimum post-deploy

## 7. Rollback Procedures

### 7.1 Rollback Triggers

A rollback must be initiated when:

- Error rate increases by more than 5x baseline
- Response time increases by more than 3x baseline
- Any data integrity issue is detected
- Any security vulnerability is discovered in the deployed change
- Core user flows are broken (login, checkout, data access)

### 7.2 Rollback Process

Step | Action | Responsible
--- | --- | ---
1 | Confirm rollback decision | On-call engineer + team lead
2 | Initiate rollback (revert deployment) | On-call engineer
3 | Verify rollback success (health checks, smoke tests) | On-call engineer
4 | Notify stakeholders | Engineering lead
5 | Create post-mortem ticket | Engineering lead
6 | Root cause analysis within 48 hours | Responsible team

### 7.3 Rollback Methods

- Git revert: Create a revert commit and deploy through normal pipeline
- Database rollback: Execute reverse migration scripts (must be tested pre-deployment)
- Feature flag: Disable feature flag to hide change without code rollback

## 8. Change Log Requirements

### 8.1 Required Documentation

Every change must be documented with:

Field | Description | Example
--- | --- | ---
Change ID | Unique identifier | CHG-2026-0042
Date | Date of deployment | 2026-03-15
Author | Who made the change | jane@company.com
Category | Standard / Normal / Emergency / Major | Normal
Description | What changed and why | Added subscription billing via Stripe
Impact | Systems, services, or data affected | Payment flow, user billing data
Approver | Who approved the change | john@company.com
Rollback plan | How to undo if needed | Revert PR #123, run migration down
Status | Planned / In Progress / Completed / Rolled Back | Completed

### 8.2 Change Log Format

Maintain a `CHANGELOG.md` in the repository root using Keep a Changelog format:

    ## [1.2.0] - 2026-03-15
    ### Added
    - Subscription billing via Stripe
    ### Changed
    - Updated user profile API to include billing status
    ### Fixed
    - Session timeout not respecting configured duration

## 9. Compliance Requirements

### 9.1 Audit Trail

1. All changes must be traceable through version control commits
2. Deployment logs must be retained for a minimum of 1 year
3. Approval records must be preserved (PR reviews, deployment approvals)
4. Emergency changes must have retroactive review within 24 hours

### 9.2 Separation of Duties

1. The person who writes code should not be the sole person who approves it
2. Production deployment access should be limited to authorized personnel
3. Database migration execution should require separate approval from code changes

### 9.3 Regulatory Alignment

Regulation | Change Management Requirement
--- | ---
SOC 2 CC8.1 | Changes are authorized, designed, developed, configured, documented, tested, approved, and implemented
ISO 27001 A.12.1.2 | Change management procedures for information processing facilities
GDPR Art. 32 | Appropriate technical measures including ability to restore availability after incidents
PCI DSS 6.5 | Address common coding vulnerabilities in software development processes

## 10. Policy Review

This change management policy should be reviewed:

- Quarterly as part of the security and compliance review cycle
- When CI/CD infrastructure changes (new platforms, tools, or workflows)
- After a failed deployment or rollback to identify process gaps
- When regulatory requirements change

For questions about this policy, contact legal@acme.com.

This Change Management Policy was generated by Codepliant based on automated code analysis. Review and verify all entries for accuracy. This document does not constitute legal advice.