Lack of control over the release process, poor collaboration between teams, and manual deployments lead to poor quality releases at a cost to the business.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Manage risk. Release management should stabilize the IT environment. A poorly designed release can take down the whole business. Rushing releases out the door leads to increased risk for the business.
- Quality processes are key. Standardized process will enable your release and deployment management teams to have a framework to deploy new releases with minimal chance of costly downtime further down the production chain.
- Business must own the process. Release managers need oversight of the business to remain good stewards of the release management process.
Impact and Result
- Be prepared with a release management policy. With vulnerabilities discovered and published at an alarming pace, organizations have to build a plan to address and fix them quickly. A detailed release and patch policy should map out all the logistics of the deployment in advance, so that when necessary, teams can handle rollouts like a well-oiled machine.
- Automate your software deployment and patch management strategy. Replace tedious and time-consuming manual processes with the use of automated release and patch management tools. Some organizations have a variety of release tools for various tasks and processes to ensure all or most of the required processes are covered across a diverse development environment.
- Test deployments and monitor your releases. Larger organizations may have the luxury of a test environment prior to deployment, but that may be cost prohibitive for smaller organizations. If resources are a constraint, roll out the patch gradually and closely monitor performance to be able to quickly revert in the event of an issue.
Stabilize Release and Deployment Management Research & Tools
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should control and stabilize your release and deployment management practice while improving the quality of releases and deployments, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
- Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phases 1-4
1. Analyze current state
Begin improving release management by assessing the current state and gaining a solid understanding of how core operational processes are actually functioning within the organization.
- Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 1: Analyze Current State
- Release Management Maturity Assessment
- Release Management Project Roadmap Tool
- Release Management Workflow Library (Visio)
- Release Management Workflow Library (PDF)
- Release Management Standard Operating Procedure
- Patch Management Policy
- Release Management Policy
- Release Management Deployment Tracker
- Release Management Build Procedure Template
2. Plan releases and deployments
Plan releases to gather all the pieces in one place and define what, why, when, and how a release will happen.
- Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 2: Release and Deployment Planning
3. Build, test, deploy
Take a holistic and comprehensive approach to effectively designing and building releases. Get everything right the first time.
- Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 3: Build, Test, Deploy
4. Measure, manage, improve
Determine desired goals for release management to ensure both IT and the business see the benefits of implementation.
- Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 4: Measure, Manage, Improve
Workshop: Stabilize Release and Deployment Management
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
1 Analyze Current State
The Purpose
Release management improvement begins with assessment of the current state.
Key Benefits Achieved
A solid understanding of how core operational processes are actually functioning within the organization.
Activities
1.1 Evaluate process maturity.
1.2 Assess release management challenges.
1.3 Define roles and responsibilities.
1.4 Review and rightsize existing policy suite.
Outputs
Maturity Assessment
Release Management Policy
Release Management Standard Operating Procedure
Patch Management Policy
2 Release Management Planning
The Purpose
In simple terms, release planning puts all the pertinent pieces in one place.
Key Benefits Achieved
It defines the what, why, when, and how a release will happen.
Activities
2.1 Design target state release planning process.
2.2 Define, bundle, and categorize releases.
2.3 Standardize deployment plans and models.
Outputs
Release Planning Workflow
Categorization and prioritization schemes
Deployment models aligned to release types
3 Build, Test, and Deploy
The Purpose
Take a holistic and comprehensive approach to effectively designing and building releases.
Key Benefits Achieved
Standardize build and test procedures to begin to drive consistency.
Activities
3.1 Standardize build procedures for deployments.
3.2 Standardize test plans aligned to release types.
Outputs
Build procedure for hardware and software releases
Test models aligned to deployment models
4 Measure, Manage, and Improve
The Purpose
Determine and define the desired goals for release management as a whole.
Key Benefits Achieved
Agree to key metrics and success criteria to start tracking progress and establish a post-deployment review process to promote continual improvement.
Activities
4.1 Determine key metrics to track progress.
4.2 Establish a post-deployment review process.
4.3 Understand and define continual improvement drivers.
Outputs
List of metrics and goals
Post-deployment validation checklist
Project roadmap