What is a good way of enforcing rules (particularly following release procedures, cut off dates) for a team?

Other than the rules need to be well defined and written down, I'm thinking there needs to be a consequence for violations....

Like must provide a valid explanation or buy the boss/team/whoever has to do extra work because of the violation a drink.

But not sure what's a good one, does it work out is this too Draconian?

Forcing to buy stuff because you broke non-legal agreements is illegal in most countries.

Make the "right" way to do something the easiest way to do something, automate as much of the process as possible and if anyone refuses to follow, they are a grown up, management needs to have a grown up conversation about why they won't follow procedure...

Rewards work better then punishments in my experience. Be careful about giving everyone equal treatment and chances though (goes for punishments as well).

I doubt forcing will work. Unless you are dealing with teenagers and/or kids, you should all be responsible, thinking people working towards the same goals. Making them understand why rules need to be followed should work. That and eliminating the Anonimity factor (logging everything).

Best way to prevent human error is to automate (that doesn't prevent errors in principle, but it makes them traceable).

For anything else you need documented processes. And try to keep them simple, people are lazy, if it is too complicated guidelines won't be followed.

If those processes are not followed, talk to the people and evaluate if it's a personal issue or if the process should be changed.

Penalties like beer or the like is something close friends can agree on, but it's a bad idea as a corporate culture, you will just annoy people and many won't follow that rule as well.

@netikras well this turned out to be a bit different than I expected...

We had cut offs before and rules to prevent everything getting done at the last minute... But everyone finds some way to push the deadline or has to be chased multiple days to get their shit together... Like a mommy chasing after her little kid.

@billgates in that case... standups, daily progress updates, a clear roadmap with all the steps and responsible employees/teams next to each step.

In worst case you can always do what they were doing in Soviet army. Make others suffer rather than the ones who are responsible. Others will make sure next time this doesn't happen :) For instance if your project is falling behing the plan, assign other teams/devs to the tasks that are lagging. It might seem like putting out fire with gasoline as they have their own tasks to deal with, but it's likely the ones who have been mobilised will have a chat with slackers. Friendly or not -- that I do not know.
This used to be a *VERY* effective tool in Soviet army.

@netikras well I'm actually not the boss... I'm the guy that has to deal with the fires... And well these nice chats don't work because someone else screws up causing an even bigger fire...

@atheist responsibility, accountability... Seems to be a skill a lot of people lack...

"Oohh I forgot a change... Wait!!! it needs to be included!!" (Technically the release branch should be built and in UAT by now)

"Test evidence? Will do that tomorrow...." (It was supposed to be done by today)