Firstly, Release Management has been around for long enough for it to no longer mean what it used to mean. Release Management used to be concentrated on the discipline of “creating a release of software”, that generally involved the following key points:
- How to create or build a reliable “release”
- How to get that reliable release out into the wild
The sorts of issues that these key points in turn raised were things like:
- How to reliably and repeatably “build” (compile) software
- How to make software builds quicker
- How to make software builds easier
- How to package software builds (zips, .msi etc)
We used to spend our time working with make files, batch files and countless checklists, running manual builds, and then we’d painstakingly create installers or configure zip files to deploy our releases. And when things went wrong, they usually went seriously wrong, and repeating the build and release process could take days.
Since those bad old days, Release Management has come a long way. Lots of the old issues have been addressed by some exceedingly neat tools which have placed emphasis on automation and quality (I’m thinking Ant/Nant, Cruise Control, the Continuous Integration process, Hudson and loads more). But one other major thing has happened in the world of Release Management, and that’s ITIL.
ITIL has redefined the practice of Release Management as more of a planning and coordinating role, it even goes so far as to say Release Management involves communicating with customers and managing customer expectation. This is a million miles away from writing complex batch files, hundreds of lines long, to compile and deploy software to a QA environment! In an ITIL world, the issues listed earlier either don’t exist, or have been addressed already and are no longer a concern to a Release Manager.
So why does the ITIL version of Release Management differ so much from the real world job of a Release Manager?
Well, I would guess that the “build management” aspect is simply not considered part of release management, and that it should be covered somewhere else, but that’s just my guess, I’m seeking some advice from ITIL about that right now.
What we’re left with now is a world where “Release Management” means one thing to one person, and something completely different to another. I’m from the old school of Release Management, I like to actually produce stuff. In a second I’ll outline what I consider to be the main roles and objectives of Release Management, and then later I’ll take each one and explain some ways that I’ve used for tackling them.
So, I like to think of Release Management as a practice which:
- Helps make software builds simple, quick and reliable. This is achieved by employing the best tools for the job. This means understanding all the various build tools, seeing how they integrate with the systems that already exist in the workplace, and making an informed choice. There’s no way you’re going to make software builds easier, more reliable and repeatable by implementing a manual solution, so get to grips with the various build tools out there and make them work for you.
- Helps make software deployments simple, quick, reliable and repeatable. Again, this is a bit like the above, but there are fewer tools to choose from. Manually deploying releases is painful and risky, and it also belongs in the dark ages and should be outlawed. There are still plenty of options and combinations of tools to make this task fully automated.
- Helps take care of configuration management. When I say configuration management, I’m talking about all those issues with how to make a software release look, feel and behave the same from one environment to the next. For me this falls into Release Management because Release Management, unlike development, QA or Operations, has a direct involvement in every environment along the way to releasing into the wild. It’s pointless asking the development team to tackle the issues of configurations between environments when they have very little or no visibility of the production environment, and besides, their time would be much better spent making that button look cooler because that’s what the business has asked for!
- Helps drive software quality. Thanks to the Continuous Integration process, and the tools that have been built around it, it’s now possible for us to build software every single time a piece of code is checked in, run a suite of unit tests, analyse the code for lazy programming and report on the amount of test coverage a project has. And that’s just the start. There are tools out there for doing much much more than this, and I’ll go into more detail about this later.
- Helps optimise development and QA time. By giving the dev team the feedback on the quality of their code and telling them where they’re going right and going wrong, we’re helping them target their efforts. Furthermore, if were busy providing these solutions for them, doing the builds, configurations and releases, the developers can get busy doing the stuff they’re skilled at doing. For the QA team, we’re finding bugs and failing releases before the releases even get to them! (of course, if we find too many bugs and fail a release, that release won’t even get o QA)
- Speeds up time to market. Ok, so we’ve made builds quicker, easier and more reliable, we’ve sped up the process of fine tuning code quality, we’ve spotted bugs before a round of QA has even begun and we’ve made the process of releasing our software out into the wild quicker and simpler. Basically we’ve saved a heap of time in dev, QA and Operations and so our new, higher quality software, can be released efficiently into the wild. Happy days!
As promised earlier, I’ll spend a while giving a few examples of how to actually implement what I’ve broadly outlined above. I’ll try to be generic where I can, but I’ll include specifics for some examples. All that and more in Part 2!
DevOpsNet 
No. Wrong.
Yes. Right.
That’s conceptual scope.
I quoted some sentences in your post. But, in Korean.
http://younghoe.info/1455
Hi there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came
to check it out. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Wonderful blog and excellent design and style.
Thanks for the comment! Glad you like it 🙂
Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m absolutely enjoying
your blog and look forward to new updates.
Deana
Hey there would you mind letting me know which web host you’re using? I’ve
loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers
and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most.
Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price?
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Great goods from you, man. I have understand your
stuff previous to and you are just too fantastic.
I actually like what you’ve acquired here, really like what you’re stating and
the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it smart.
I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually
a great website.
I like the helpful info you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.
I am quite certain I will learn plenty of new stuff right here!
Best of luck for the next!
I leave a response whenever I like a post on a blog or if I have something to valuable to contribute to the discussion.
It is triggered by the passion displayed in the article I read.
And after this post Best Practices for Build and Release Management Part 1 | DevOpsNet.
I was actually moved enough to drop a comment 😉 I actually do
have a few questions for you if you don’t mind. Could it be simply me or does it look like like a few of the remarks come across like they are left by brain dead folks? 😛 And, if you are writing at other social sites, I would like to follow everything new you have to post. Would you list the complete urls of your community pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this brilliant blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to
my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
Denn auf unserem Geschenke und Geschenkideen Blog präsentieren wir schöne Dinge und Wohnkamine.
Wir ziehen umher und sehen immer wieder mal was uns gefällt und das präsentieren wir hier.
Natürlich können Sie die meisten Produkte auch gleich kaufen, doch ausschließlich per amazon, damit ihr Einkauf sicher ist!
I feel this is one of the such a lot vital info for me.
And i am happy studying your article. However want
to observation on some common issues, The web site taste is great, the articles is really nice : D.
Good process, cheers
Hi there to all, how is the whole thing, I think every one is getting more from this website,
and your views are good for new people.
whoah this blog is wonderful i really like reading your articles.
Keep up the good work! You realize, a lot of persons are searching round for this information, you can aid them greatly.
Aw, this was a really good post. Finding the time and actual effort to make a top notch article… but what can I say… I put things off a
whole lot and don’t seem to get anything done.
Hola! I’ve been reading your site for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic job!
hello!,I really like your writing very much! proportion we communicate more about your article
on AOL? I require an expert on this area
to unravel my problem. May be that is you!
Looking forward to see you.
I leave a response whenever I like a article on a site or if I have something to
valuable to contribute to the conversation.
It’s a result of the passion communicated in the post I browsed. And after this article Best Practices for Build and Release Management Part 1 | DevOpsNet. I was moved enough to post a commenta response 😛 I do have 2 questions for you if you usually do not mind. Is it only me or do a few of these comments come across as if they are left by brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are posting on additional places, I would like to follow everything new you have to post. Could you make a list all of all your social pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?
Definitely believe that that you stated. Your favourite reason seemed to be at the web
the simplest factor to take into account of. I say to you, I certainly
get irked at the same time as other people think about concerns that they plainly
do not understand about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and outlined out the whole thing with no need side-effects ,
other people can take a signal. Will probably be again to get more.
Thank you
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your next post thanks once again.
Hello! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest
writing a blog article or vice-versa? My site discusses a lot of the same topics
as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each
other. If you happen to be interested feel free to send me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you! Excellent blog
by the way!
Likewise, the appetite criteria and power costs were not various amongst treatments.
The product is a renowneded one and no introduction is required for the
users.
I was curious if youu ever considered changing the page layoutt of your site?
Its very well written; I love what youve got too say. But maybe you coild a little more
in thee way of contennt sso peoplee could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having
one or two pictures. Maybe youu could soace it out better?
It’s going to be ending of mine day, however before end I am reading this enormous post to improve my
know-how.
I blog frequently and I really thank you for your information.
This article has truly peaked my interest. I’m going to take a
note of your website and keep checking for
new details about once per week. I subscribed to your Feed too.