The following actions should be performed:

1. Make sure you are on branch master:

   git checkout master

2. Determine if there are any outstanding issues blocking the release.

3. Verify that documentation builds and looks correct.

4. Test deployment of test site from scratch to make sure all roles behave correctly.

5. Create release notes.

6. Update versioning information in file conf.py, and eventually any other files that may include role version information.

7. Commit the changes:

   git commits -m "MAR-XX: Preparing for release 1.4.0."

8. Create annotated Git tag:

   git tag --sign -a 1.4.0

9. Change versioning information in conf.py to mark the documentation as belonging to development.

10. Commit changes:

    git commits -m "Noticket: Bumping version to 1.4-dev (switching back to development)."

11. Verify GnuPG signatures:

    git gpgcheck
    git verify-tag 1.4.0

12. Push the changes:

    git push
    git push origin 1.4.0

13. Mark the version as released in issue tracker.

14. Create maintenance/bugfix branch:

    git checkout -b 1.4 1.4.0
    git push origin 1.4