Change freeze
A defined period in which production changes are not permitted — quarter end, year end, a business event — except for approved emergency changes.
Also calledcode freeze · freeze period · blackout period
A period in which the organisation decides in advance that the risk of changing is greater than the risk of waiting: quarter close, year end, a major business event, or a stretch when support teams are thin.
A usable freeze has start and end dates, a list of the systems it applies to, and a defined emergency route for changes that genuinely cannot wait.
The practical problem
A freeze that lives only in institutional memory surfaces too late — after the invitation has gone to thirty contacts. Freeze periods are known months ahead, so they belong in the scheduling input, not in a remark someone makes in a meeting.