Great checklist. Hands up who wishes that making an update were simpler? Of course, a lot can be scripted, BUT, I would request that some serious thought is put into making updating the following easier:
roles & policies
workflows
sections
object states definitions
If there was an option for packaging up content classes and any associated roles & policies, that would make life so much easier!
Followed this checklist yesterday, everything went smooth without any hickups. Had a backup ready just in case, but not needed. Thanks for the writeup, was helpfull.