In release management, a release is a new piece of software as well as the process of creating it.
A fully operational version of the software is known as a release, and it is the product of the software development and engineering processes. The final version of the software typically arrives before the alpha and beta versions for release management.
Releases may also be referred to as launches or increments.
The majority of businesses identify releases by a unique set of sequential numbers or letters. The process of naming software is known as software versioning. For how these distinctive identifiers change from release to release, each business consistently adheres to its own internal standard. There are no general guidelines for the sector. What is the release management procedure?
Organizations boost software development or update quality, speed, and effectiveness by focusing on release management. This process includes the planning, scheduling, and supervision of the development, testing, deployment, and support phases of a software build. Improved release management can be attributed to DevOps, Agile development, continuous delivery, and release automation. Amazon has reached 50 million code deployments per year, or more than one per second, as a result of this procedure’s recent acceleration.
The Objectives and Benefits of Release Management
An organization can expect a rise in the number of successful releases and a decrease in quality issues as a result of good release management. Software can be delivered more quickly, there is less risk, and productivity, coordination, and communication are all improved.
The team is now able to produce high-quality software on a regular basis with shorter time to market, enabling the company to be more responsive to the operating environment thanks to these enhancements.
Release management can also help standardize and streamline the operations and development processes. Throughout the life cycle, the team implements auditable release controls to create a repository for all releases. Having a single, well-documented procedure that must be followed for all releases increases organizational maturity. Due to increased standardization and a focus on the product, teams are able to incorporate more useful lessons from previous releases into subsequent releases.
The increased coordination with developers is appreciated by operations departments because there are fewer surprises. They can now avoid giving the impression that a release from development has just been “thrown over the wall,” necessitating operations to “patch and pray” and put out fires in a hurry. In addition, configuration issues between the operating and development environments are more likely to be resolved.
Simply put, release management breaks down silos between teams working in different IT departments.
As a result, product delivery can be improved holistically.
Gabriel Gutierrez, a Solutions Architect at Boeing and a former Release Manager at Costco, believes that when executing a release, it is essential to adequately consider the effects on other parts of the organization. Businesses must provide a common platform where modifications are thoroughly evaluated and subjected to in-depth architectural and design reviews in order to achieve integrated testing. Cross-functional and technical reviews are essential in order to lessen the unavoidable pain of going live. He elaborates, “A smooth post-go-live operation is a critical success factor of any release.”
A Brief History of Release Management The rise of release management can be attributed to the shift in software engineering’s focus from project-based to product-based offerings. Under the project-based development paradigm, software developers would view each release as a project rather than a product. Fully developed software largely signaled the end of the developers’ role.
As complexity has increased, so has the requirement to coordinate the phases.
The inherent turbulence of software development
Stakeholder requirements appear to be endlessly fluid and the compliance and regulation landscape continues to shift, is addressed by change management, a larger IT discipline. Release management is a subfield of this broader IT field. Software engineering processes must be synchronized in order to navigate this environment, and release management helps with this.
“Disregarding the importance of a well-thought-out change management process” is a “common pitfall,” according to BitTitan release manager Jen Dunbeck. The significance of a change advisory board or change control board cannot be overstated in a release. An important aspect of their work is providing objective assistance in evaluating risk and impact.
To get started, you can download the change proposal and change management log templates below for free.
Template for a Change Proposal
A change proposal typically lays out the nature and scope of the change and is the initial stage of the change management process. Give a reason for the change, the expected outcomes and effects, the required amount of time and resources, and any other considerations. This template also has space for adding descriptive information and sections for calculating costs and benefits.
Change Management Log A change management log is a document that records who, when, what kind of change was requested, the status of the request, the priority of the request, and instructions on how to resolve it. Use the Smartsheet template instead of the Excel template.
Download a template for Excel or Smartsheet. The Process of Release Management: An Overview Software differs from one another. Depending on the program’s functionality and intended use, the software engineering process can be rigorous and demanding.
A single central repository with release management combines the following elements:
A release includes more than just the fundamental tasks of software engineering.
Release management can also be utilized with older software. Modified software goes through the same process to make sure stakeholders get what they want.
The actual release can be carried out manually or, increasingly, automatically, depending on the maturity of the release management procedure. Amazon automates the release of a new version every second. In the past, updates were typically provided by software development teams on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.)
