Release management

Release management is an IT term used frequently across a range of industries. At its

most basic, release management describes overseeing the development, testing,
deployment, and support involved in designing and releasing software. Release
management incorporates goals and long-term strategic planning, as well as the
individual tactical steps employed to help reach those goals.

Many businesses take release management even further, beyond the technical
process of deploying IT products and features, and into managing adoption,
business-process changes, and other internal factors related to rollout.
How does release management fit into ITIL?
Release management plays a key role in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Also
referred to as release and deployment management, it is one of the main processes
under the Service Transition section of ITIL. Release management in ITIL focuses on
quality and customer experience as primary to product and service deployment,
while also promoting cost-effective business practices. In ITIL terms, release
management addresses changes and improvements to existing products or services.

ITIL represents perhaps the most trusted and widely-used framework for technology
governance. In this framework, release management ensures that development and
operation teams can coordinate together, sharing relevant knowledge and resources.
This helps teams effectively conduct multiple projects at the same time, providing a
structured approach for ideating, employing, testing, and introducing new versions
of components or services.
A closer look at the release management process
As separate project teams each introduce changes to the production environment,
they need to be able to coordinate together effectively. Release management strives
to align these teams with unified processes, policies and guidelines for every stage of
the release. The purpose is to ensure that everyone involved is fully aware of what
resources are available, how these resources are being used, what changes are being
made by which teams, and that any subsequent changes follow a prescribed,
standardized sequence of tasks. This sequence is called the release management
process.

As you move through the release management process, you will encounter six
essential steps, detailed below.
Requesting

The very first step in release management is recognizing the need for new product
features or changes to established functions or services. Change requests go through
predetermined channels, and are evaluated based on need, feasibility, cost, and other
criteria. It’s worth noting that not every one of your change requests will receive
approval; those that do move onward into the planning stage.

Planning

The planning stage includes creating and setting up the release management system.
As such, setting aside more time for this stage will likely be necessary.

In this stage, the business defines the structure that the release will take. A precisely
defined structure will give your team a roadmap to follow as they move through
subsequent steps and push the release through to deployment and beyond. Your
release plan can be as simple as a checklist, detailing actions and tasks to be
completed in their chronological order, as well as teams or individuals responsible for
each. That said, many businesses find that detailed digital workflows provide the
clearest direction, ensuring that everyone is working towards common goals and that
essential requirements are being met.

Effective release plans usually include milestones, responsibilities, estimated

timelines, deadlines, and a clear, comprehensive view of the project as a whole. The
release plan is something that teams can refer back to throughout the entire process.
Establishing a repeatable release management system usable across multiple
releases allows you to speed up future processes and better coordinate efforts,
company wide.

Designing and building

With approval, ideation, and planning behind you, you now enter actual
development. Designing and building the product, component, or function requires
addressing any issues that may arise, and converting your project’s established
requirements into software. This stage overlaps somewhat with the next stage.
Performing final review

Before deployment, the release should go through a final review, taking into account
any new information or insights acquired during testing. The QA team will analyze
and inspect the final product to ensure that it meets the standards and requirements
established in the planning stage. Although some bugs may sneak through into
deployment, this final review should provide your teams with enough information to
be able to handle any problems that might occur at or after product launch.
Deploying

With final approval from the project owner, the product is sent into production and
can be released to the end user. Any supplementary educational material, including
change notifications, operating guides, and necessary training resources will need to
be released at the same time. Be sure to tailor these resources not only to the end
user, but also to any company-side support teams that may need to field user
questions or assist in troubleshooting.

The deployment stage represents the culmination of the release management

process, but the process doesn’t end at launch. Teams will need to follow up to
access the release, identify any bottlenecks or hurdles, and improve the process for
future products.

Be aware that businesses of various sizes will likely follow a very similar end-to-end
process, with essentially the same steps. However, smaller organizations with fewer
projects may find that their version of the release management process is much less
complex when compared to larger businesses. As a company scales its releases to
match its growth, and as teams and departments expand to include more people,
release management expands as well, requiring more advanced support tools.

The role of release management

Organizations that have fully embraced automation may consider release
management an unnecessary, outdated process. But while methodologies such as
Agile might increase the speed of software deployment, they do not address
problems of siloed teams and inefficient delivery processes. Release management
helps keep everyone on track and looking at the bigger picture. It does this by
reducing risk, optimizing deployment efficiency, and providing increased customer
value.
Reducing risk

Standardized requirements and governance policies that can be repeated across

multiple projects help eliminate many of the risks associated with product release.
Release managers can adapt individual processes to better meet the needs of
specific releases, and scale these processes as the business continues to grow.
Optimizing deployment efficiency

By aligning focus on increasing positive value, reducing negative value, and

improving development and release times, release management provides a clear
path to improving software-deployment efficiency.
Increasing customer value

Incorporating customer feedback and using an iterative process of development and

testing, release management gives businesses the opportunity to continually increase
the value delivered to the end user.
Release management in DevOps
Release management also provides a valuable service within the DevOps methodology.
As with Agile, DevOps’ automation and decentralization may appear to make release
management obsolete. But despite what DevOps provides in terms of fast
deployment and simultaneous product development, there will always be a need to
coordinate relevant teams, align business priorities, standardize processes, and
ensure high-quality products.

Coordinating with DevOps managers, release managers should monitor continuous

integration and ensure that positive customer value is being improved, bugs and
other issues are being quickly and effectively addressed, and that new features are
integrating correctly into the established release management process.
Indicators of successful release management
As previously stated, release management aligns teams with common objectives
designed to improve product quality and the customer experience. With this in mind,
you can evaluate the success of your release management initiatives using the
following indicators:
Deployment aligns with timeline goals

Was the release launched by the established deadline? Were individual tasks
completed on time?
Deployment fits within budget constraints

Was the project completed within budget?

Current users are unaffected

Were current users able to continue using the product or service without any
negative interruption?
New and current users are left satisfied

Did the release overall improve the end-user experience?

The benefits of Release Management
Release Management brings the power of advanced automation to the release
management process. Automate approvals and governance to reduce bottlenecks
and keep development moving forward. Assess risk and detect conflict to reduce
change failure. Employ automated frameworks to improve coordination between
DevOps and IT. Even use the built-in Change-Success-Score to evaluate and
automatically approve low-risk changes, while the Change Advisory Board
Workbench provides you with a dedicated location to meet with other decision
makers to discuss and approve more-complex changes.

Release management allows your business to coordinate software changes and

releases with a focus on your customers, while still aligning with your business
priorities. It takes release management further, automating essential steps and tasks,
and giving you the tools and resources you need to optimize your processes.