Which of the following elements can be checked before allowing changes to be deployed?

The correct choice is approval workflows. Approval workflows are essential since they add a layer of governance to the deployment process, ensuring that all changes undergo a review before they are pushed to production environments. These workflows help organizations maintain control over their deployments by requiring that designated team members or stakeholders approve the changes, thereby reducing the likelihood of errors or issues arising from unvalidated changes.

Approval workflows can be configured to establish different approval criteria or sequences based on the nature of the changes, enabling organizations to enforce compliance with their own internal policies and regulations. This is particularly useful in larger organizations or projects with complex requirements where multiple parties are involved in the decision-making process.

The other options such as metadata groups, automations, and metadata items serve different purposes in the deployment framework but don’t specifically act as gatekeepers for allowing or denying deployments based on checks. While they play vital roles in managing and organizing the deployment process, it is the approval workflows that serve as a critical checkpoint ensuring that all modifications have received the necessary endorsements prior to deployment.