diff --git a/contribute/merge-pull-request.md b/contribute/merge-pull-request.md
index 5619aee82a8..61abe3e2904 100644
--- a/contribute/merge-pull-request.md
+++ b/contribute/merge-pull-request.md
@@ -21,9 +21,13 @@ The following checklist/summary should give you a quick overview of what to ask/
 
 Before actually merging a pull request there's a couple of things to take into consideration.
 
+### Status checks
+
+Before you can merge a pull request, it must have a review approval, and all the required status checks must pass.
+
 ### Format the pull request title
 
-Make sure that the pull request title is properly formatted according to `<Area>: <Summary>` and try to make the summary short and understandable for the community as a whole.
+The pull request title should be formatted according to `<Area>: <Summary>`. Keep the summary short and understandable for the community as a whole.
 
 All commits in a pull request are squashed when merged and the pull request title will be the default subject line of the squashed commit message. It's also used for [changelog/release notes](#include-in-changelog-and-release-notes).
 
@@ -31,9 +35,9 @@ See [formatting guidelines](create-pull-request.md#formatting-guidelines) for mo
 
 ### Assign a milestone
 
-It's recommended to add a milestone to every pull request. This makes it easier to track what changes did go into a certain release. Without this you're basically left with going through git commits which could be a lot harder.
+A milestone **should** be added to every pull request. Several things in the Grafana release process requires at least pull requests to be in a milestone, for example [generating changelog/release notes](#include-in-changelog-and-release-notes).
 
-There's also various tooling built that in some cases requires a pull request to be assigned a milestone, for example [generating changelog/release notes](#include-in-changelog-and-release-notes).
+This makes it easier to track what changes go into a certain release. Without this information, release managers have to go through git commits which is not an efficient process.
 
 ### Include in changelog and release notes?