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Difference between revisions of "Release Management"

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In short, release management breaks down team barriers across multiple functions in an IT organization. As a result, you can improve product delivery holistically.
 
In short, release management breaks down team barriers across multiple functions in an IT organization. As a result, you can improve product delivery holistically.
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=== Release Management Success Indicators<ref>What are Release Management Success Indicators? [https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/what-is/release-management Microfocus]</ref> ===
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For a release to be deemed successful, it must attain the following objectives:
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*It’s deployed on time.
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*It’s deployed within budget.
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*It has little to no impact on current users.
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*It satisfies the needs of current and new users, technological advances and/or competitive demands.

Revision as of 18:25, 15 January 2021

Release Management is the process that handles software deployments and change initiatives. Across an organization, it schedules the relevant tasks (internal and external), assigns the physical and human resources needed to carry them out, and oversees the execution. It starts with planning what will be contained within a release, managing the software build through different stages and environments, testing stability and finally, deployment. It is a difficult balancing act between:

  • Delivering value and novel features to customers
  • Prioritizing value streams according to business needs
  • Improving the speed and quality of release deployments
  • Not compromising product stability.[1]


The Objectives and Benefits of Release Management[2]
Done effectively, release management increases the number of successful releases by an organization and reduces quality problems. Productivity, communication, and coordination are improved, and the organization can deliver software faster while decreasing risk.

These improvements mean the team can repeatedly produce quality software with shorter times to market, which allows the company to be more responsive to the operating environment.

Release management also helps standardize and streamline the development and operations process. The team implements auditable release controls, thus creating a repository for all releases throughout the life cycle. Having a single, well-documented process that must be followed for all releases increases organizational maturity. Increased standardization and the focus on product allow teams to draw more useful lessons from experience and apply them in future releases.

Operations departments appreciate the increased coordination with developers because there are fewer surprises. They can now avoid feeling that a release has simply been “thrown over the wall” from development, leaving operations to fight fires and “patch and pray” because of short deadlines. There’s also more of an opportunity to resolve configuration issues between the development and operating environments.

In short, release management breaks down team barriers across multiple functions in an IT organization. As a result, you can improve product delivery holistically.


Release Management Success Indicators[3]

For a release to be deemed successful, it must attain the following objectives:

  • It’s deployed on time.
  • It’s deployed within budget.
  • It has little to no impact on current users.
  • It satisfies the needs of current and new users, technological advances and/or competitive demands.
  1. Definition - What is Release Management? Plutora
  2. The Objectives and Benefits of Release Management Smartsheet
  3. What are Release Management Success Indicators? Microfocus