What is the purpose of marking user stories as Ready to Promote?

Marking user stories as Ready to Promote signifies that they have completed the necessary development and testing phases, and are now prepared for the next steps in the release process. This status indicates that the stories have been reviewed, meet the required criteria, and are organized for deployment to production or other environments.

This readiness is crucial for maintaining an efficient workflow, as it ensures that only fully vetted and functional user stories are pushed forward in the delivery pipeline. It facilitates a smoother deployment process, allowing teams to prioritize and manage releases effectively.

In contrast, other options such as creating a backup of the stories, notifying users about pending approvals, or automatically rejecting outdated stories do not accurately reflect the intent behind the "Ready to Promote" status, which is focused specifically on preparing items for deployment rather than addressing version control, communication, or rejection processes.