Planning 08 — Performance, Maintenance & Lifecycle Assumptions

This checklist defines performance expectations, maintenance responsibilities, and lifecycle assumptions before any implementation or content publishing begins. Its purpose is to prevent unrealistic performance goals and unclear maintenance ownership.

Decisions made here establish how the site is expected to perform and be maintained over time, not just at launch.

Checklist Objective

Establish clear, documented assumptions about site performance targets, maintenance routines, and long‑term lifecycle management.

Preconditions

• Planning 01 — Site Purpose & Scope Definition is completed and approved
• Planning 02 — Content System & Page Model is completed and approved
• Planning 03 — Navigation & Landing Page Map is completed and approved
• Planning 04 — URL, Slug & Taxonomy Rules is completed and approved
• Planning 05 — Indexing, Visibility & Crawl Control is completed and approved
• Planning 06 — SEO Execution & Governance Rules is completed and approved
• Planning 07 — Editorial Workflow & Change Control is completed and approved

Checklist Steps

1. Define performance expectations.
   • Identify acceptable load time and responsiveness targets
   • Confirm performance expectations balance speed with maintainability
2. Define maintenance responsibilities.
   • Confirm who performs updates, audits, and routine checks
   • Identify tasks that require scheduled attention
3. Define update cadence assumptions.
   • Confirm expected frequency of WordPress, plugin, and theme updates
   • Avoid assumptions of constant or reactive tuning
4. Define lifecycle expectations for content.
   • Identify content intended to be long‑lived
   • Identify content subject to periodic review or retirement
5. Define monitoring assumptions.
   • Confirm what performance or stability metrics are monitored
   • Define thresholds that require action or investigation
6. Review alignment with downstream operations.
   • Read operation titles only
   • Confirm assumptions support ongoing maintenance workflows
   • Related operations:
     • Operations — Site Maintenance & Performance

Required Output

• Documented performance expectations
• Defined maintenance ownership
• Update and review cadence assumptions
• Content lifecycle expectations
• Monitoring and response assumptions

Pause & Lock

Once approved, performance and lifecycle assumptions become locked inputs for implementation and ongoing operations.

Outputs from this checklist are required context for Planning 09 — Risk, Constraints & Assumption Review .