Quality gate
A checkpoint in a workflow or deployment pipeline that blocks progress until defined criteria are met. Example: a workflow cannot deploy to production until it passes all automated tests and has been reviewed by a second engineer.
Expert insight
A quality gate that blocks deployment on failed automated checks only works if the checks it runs are actually meaningful, a quality gate that only verifies "the workflow doesn't throw a syntax error" provides false confidence compared to one that also validates output against expected data shapes and business rules.
In a real workflow
A generated invoice is checked for totals, tax and customer details before it is sent.
Common mistakes
- Gates that are bypassed under time pressure.
- Gates with no owner for failed items.
Complexity level
Requires some familiarity with automation concepts.
Related terms
CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Delivery)
Automated pipelines that test and deploy code changes. For automation teams, CI/…
Testing (automation)
Running a workflow with controlled inputs to verify it produces expected outputs…
Staging environment
A test environment that mirrors production but uses test data. PURIST builds and…
See it in action
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More in Architecture
Keep exploring
Real-time processing
Executing automation logic within milliseconds or seconds of an event …
Redundancy
Duplicating critical components of an automation system so that if one…
Regression testing
Re-running existing test cases after making changes to a workflow to e…
Rollback
Reverting a workflow deployment to a prior working version after a fai…
Sandbox environment
A test environment provided by a SaaS platform (Stripe, Salesforce, Hu…
Scalability
The ability of an automation system to handle growing volume without d…
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Guides that cover Quality gate