CAPM Practice: Validate requirements through product delivery

Dark launching deploys features to production but hides them from most users. This validates technical requirements (performance, scalability, integration) under real production load before exposing the feature to users for functional requirements validation — reducing risk of failure on full launch.

**Why not A:** Testing requirements compliance in offline environments describes offline testing or sandbox testing, not dark launching. Dark launching specifically involves deploying to the production environment but hiding the feature from most users, enabling real-world performance validation under actual production conditions.

**Why not B:** Releasing features only at night to minimize user impact is a timed deployment strategy, not dark launching. Dark launching makes features invisible to most users regardless of time of day, using feature flags or routing controls to limit exposure while validating technical performance at scale.

**Why not C:** A stealth marketing technique for product launches describes a marketing strategy, not a technical deployment practice. Dark launching is a software engineering technique that deploys features to production infrastructure while keeping them hidden from users, enabling performance and integration validation before user exposure.