Before you launch an AI-built application, check seven areas. Here's what each one covers and why it matters. The full tick-box version is free to download.
1. Security
Start here, because security failures are the hardest to undo. Confirm that no secrets are in your repository, that every endpoint checks both who the user is and whether they may access this record, that input is validated on the server, and that dependencies are scanned. If you store personal information, make sure you know where it lives and who can see it. POPIA applies.
2. Architecture
Can you draw your system on a single page? You should be able to list every component, every external service and how data moves between them. If you can't, nobody can reason about failures, costs or security. Also ask what breaks first under ten times the load.
3. CI/CD
Code should live in Git with a protected main branch, changes should go through pull requests, and an automated pipeline should build, test and deploy. You should be able to roll back in minutes. Why AI-built products usually skip this →
4. Monitoring
You need to know about problems before your customers do. That means external uptime checks, automatic error reporting, alerts that reach a person, and budget alerts on cloud and AI spend.
5. Logging
When something goes wrong, logs are how you find out what happened. Centralise them, make them searchable, record important actions such as logins, permission changes and payments, and make sure they never contain passwords, tokens or unnecessary personal data.
6. Backups
Automatic backups are the start, not the finish. Back up files as well as the database, keep backups separate from production and, most importantly, test a restore. An untested backup is a hope, not a plan.
7. Disaster recovery
Decide how much data you can afford to lose and how long you can be down. Write a short runbook for recovering from a major failure. Make sure more than one person can access hosting, DNS, domains and billing, and know what you'll do if a critical provider goes down.
How to use the checklist
Work through it honestly. Every item you can't tick is a risk, and that's fine at MVP stage, as long as it's a known risk you've chosen to accept. The danger is in the gaps you don't know about.