Validation deployments are an excellent way to ensure the reliability and success of future deployments. For instance, many teams only allow production deployments at approved times. In these cases, it’s highly recommended to run a validation deployment to production days in advance. This proactive approach allows you to identify and address potential issues, such as metadata errors or failed tests, before the scheduled deployment.

Validation deployments are also useful when a release is not yet complete (and are strongly encouraged in such scenarios). For example, even if some features are still pending, you can perform validation deployments to evaluate the current state of the release content. This allows you to proactively resolve any issues. Meanwhile, new features merged into the draft release will automatically be included, and you can continue running incremental validation deployments as needed.

Additionally, validation deployments are invaluable for ensuring Apex test integrity. For example, even if a deployment to an integration org is configured with NoTestRun, you can still perform a validation deployment using the RunLocalTests option. This helps you stay informed about the current status of Apex tests and can be done at any time during the release process.