A Definitive Guide To Release Management


Whether you're new to release management or an experienced practitioner, Release Management is one of those topics that everyone seems to struggle with at some point. 


IT release management is a part of the whole process of managing release management software, hardware, and applications. It helps in the successful delivery of software projects for IT organizations. 


What is Release Management?


Software release management encompasses the process of managing the delivery of software from development to deployment. 


The release management process involves a series of steps that an organization goes through to ensure that there is no gap between the time a product/service is developed and delivered to customers.


The four main phases of software release management are:


  • Pre-release phase - The pre-release phase starts with planning for the release, which includes identifying what needs to be fixed or added before it goes live. 


  • Pilot phase - In the pilot phase, the new features are implemented and tested by users. Once successfully tested, it can be made available to all users. 


  • Production phase - The production phase involves ensuring everything works together as expected and that there are no problems with the client system or network connections. 


  • Post-release phase- Involves monitoring customer feedback on the performance and usability of new features, updating policies or procedures if needed, and fixing bugs or other issues that have come up during testing.


Also Read: Top 10 Benefits Of Test Automation

Goals of Release Management


The release management process involves the coordination of schedules and resources across an organization to implement software upgrades. Software release management aims to ensure that quality software products are deployable by users on time. 

The following are the goals of release management: 


  • To track all project activities.

  • To control the release of software to meet business requirements and customer expectations.

  • To control the flow of information to and from the development team and ensure that all requirements are properly understood by developers.

  • To Improve customer satisfaction by providing an on-time, high-quality product that meets or exceeds adequate customer requirements.

  • To provide a stable, highly-secure environment in which applications can be developed, tested using the correct test data management platform, and released to production reliably without interruption or loss of data integrity.

  • To ensure that applications are released at the time expected with minimal impact on production systems, both internal and external to the company.

  • To monitor the impact of releases on customers, suppliers, partners, and employees.

Benefits of Release Management

The key benefits of software release management include the following:
  • Improved product quality by managing software releases in a timely manner
  • Improved customer satisfaction by offering customers the latest version of your product
  • Reduced costs and resources through reduced support and maintenance activities
  • Better long-term business plans through better planning of future products and services

Phases of Release Management

Planning


Planning encompasses all activities related to planning and scheduling the release of a product or service using a release management software, including:


  • Identifying needs and requirements that need to be addressed by the development team

  • Defining the scope of work and tasks required to complete each requirement

  • Estimating the effort required to complete each requirement based on past experience with similar requirements in similar contexts or based on best practices when available (e.g., Agile methodologies)

  • Identifying dependencies between requirements so they can be prioritized according to their impact on overall project success

Software Building


  • Build the executable codebase that will run on the target platform.

  • Test the build components by running it on a target platform and selected user group (UAT) to check for errors and other anomalies (i.e., bugs).

Testing


Testing is a process of checking the quality of the software product to identify any errors or defects. Also, it is used to make sure that the product meets customers' needs and expectations.

The testing process can be divided into three main phases:


  • Pre-testing: This phase involves preparation for testing. It includes the identification of testing goals, methods, and requirements.


  • Testing: This phase involves the actual tests or experiments which are performed on the software product leveraging a test data management platform. Some examples are functional tests, performance tests and regression tests etc.

  • Evaluation: This phase involves analysis of results from previous testing activities and comparison with expected results, as well as any corrective actions if required.

Deployment 

Deployment activities include the following:

  • Provisioning: This is the process of creating, configuring, and installing an application on a target device. Provisioning can be performed manually or through automation.


  • Deployment: This is the process of distributing deployed applications to target devices through a secure delivery mechanism.


  • Validation: This is the process of testing the deployed applications on target devices to ensure that they meet specified requirements.


Management Components of Deployment


  • Distribution Management: Distribution management involves the process of making the product available to external users. This includes the process of building, packaging, and distributing the software product.


  • Configuration Management: Configuration management involves tracking all changes to configuration files and ensuring that they are recorded in version control systems.


  • Change Management: Change management is responsible for ensuring that all changes made to a system are documented and controlled. It also ensures that these changes are tested before they are pushed out to production systems.

Wrapping up

Release management is an important part of the software development process using a set of release management software. It should be seen as a continuous activity, not just something that takes place at the end. 
Make sure that all release management activities are clearly defined and happening, that they fit into a cohesive framework, and that they are being consistently met.
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