As a software developer I can appreciate the pressures that cause a product to be released with untested last-minute changes. But I can tell you that *every single time* I have done this, I have been burned. Badly! Rules and recommendations exist for a reason, and you ignore them at your peril. Unfortunately, release schedules aren't made by developers or Q&A, they're made by the PHB who believes that an extra round of testing is a waste of time and money. Their motto: "Quality is job 1.1" (or, "We'll fix it when enough people complain").