Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for managing deployment of a software product. During operation, the system obtains a current state and a set of steps in a deployment workflow for the product. Upon receiving a request to deploy the product in a next step following the current state in the deployment workflow, the system identifies a deployment window containing a start time and an end time in a deployment schedule for the product. When the deployment window is open, the system uses the deployment workflow to automatically initiate deployment of the product to an environment representing the next step.