The Definitive Guide to Release Management

Software development has changed radically in recent years, so why are our processes still the same? Enter release management. Release management is a modern solution to the unique challenges software engineers and project managers face today. Between near-constant demands for updates, increasingly complex platforms, and the external pressures of lightning-fast innovation, it’s no wonder why this new form of productivity has evolved.

In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about release management and the benefits it provides. Keep reading to discover checklists and useful tools to help you master this essential software development strategy.

What is release management?

Release management is a new discipline in software engineering used to develop new software and improve existing ones. This software project management method covers everything from ideation to release. Tasks such as creating project schedules, building out teams, and scheduling various phases all fall under this umbrella.

Its purpose? To create a repeatable system for software development oversight that can handle all four major cycles (development, testing, release, and updates) during a product’s lifetime.

Release management is quickly gaining popularity thanks to its many advantages. Even if teams already have systems in place to carry out similar assignments, release management tackles the problem more effectively and efficiently. That is because using release management to tackle complex and continuous development cycles is generally more effective than traditional software update models.

And with software releases becoming more widely distributed, they’re now getting instant feedback. This requires new patches and upgrades at a faster pace and on a wider variety of platforms than ever before. So it’s no wonder why seasoned engineers are giving release management a try. It may, in fact, be the only real solution to modern software development needs.

So how does release management work, exactly? First, it begins with the following phases:

Phase 1: Create an IT release schedule

This includes everything from dark periods to release dependencies . Anything related to strategically moving the release schedule forward falls under this category. This includes: schedule creation, schedule approval, blackout dates, planned PTO, release streams, windows, and trains.

Phase 2: Create a solution release schedule

Any release schedule not otherwise covered by the IT release schedule is planned in this category. That includes continuous, intermittent, and as-needed releases. Pro tip: watch out for conflicts between projects and within individual employee schedules. Employees working on more than one release may need to know how to prioritize their tasks. Streamline decision-making by adding priority levels to their assignments from the start to make better decisions in the moment.

Phase 3: Plan and assign infrastructure-related tasks

Hardware, licensing, and anything else related to keeping the structural integrity of your products and processes intact are key ideas in this phase. Your release and operations should work together in this step. Keep an eye out for conflicts between active and upcoming projects. Also, use this phase to sort out the relationships between software and hardware to speed up the ordering and pairing processes in the future.

Phase 4: Test for product readiness

Product readiness in this phase means the product itself as well as whether or not consumers and stakeholders are ready for it. It’s important to templatize this particular phase. Otherwise, if software releases aren’t happening frequently, it could feel like reinventing the wheel each time you do it, leading to quality and workflow issues.

Phase 5: Support delivery teams

This phase is twofold. First, engineers must prep delivery teams with the appropriate deployment strategy. Then, they are responsible for providing advanced support between this phase and the next. In practice, this can look like answering questions about the deployment process or even mentoring team members one-on-one.

Phase 6: Manage and learn from releases

Like any great software development campaign, there is always room for improvement, which is why this critical phase is last but not least in the release management process. Engineers, team leads, and stakeholders must evaluate a variety of factors— the key ones are process, policy, and metrics. Release management is an evolving process, so taking the time to learn from each project makes it easier to perform better next time.

What are release management best practices?

The top release management best practices are surprisingly straightforward despite how complex the processes themselves are. Here are the topmost important ones:

What are the benefits of release management processes?

There are many benefits to release management processes, ranging from team support to higher quality products to better operations. Here are some ways that solid release management processes can help your team:

What are the challenges of release management?

Lack of visibility, consistency, and data are the biggest challenges facing release management. Visibility includes knowing who is working on what and when it will be delivered at all times. It also means giving insight to collaborators and stakeholders, so there’s no hold-up if they need to give feedback.

Consistency refers to how the work is done and its quality. Release management is a fluid process that can and should be personalized over time, but it needs a solid foundation first, so it has something to improve on.

And finally, we have data. Data such as past release performance and challenges help teams get a better understanding of where they are where they realistically can be.

Why release management helps in the software release process

Release management was developed for and by software developers specifically to solve the challenges of the software release process. In addition to the benefits we’ve covered, release management laser focuses on the tasks needed to progress in the development, operations, and deployment phases. This means there is a throughline from beginning to end that keeps everything in line with business goals. Plus, it makes it easier to avoid common roadblocks such as updating redundancies and competing resources.

What to put in a release management checklist

A release management checklist is a straightforward list of all software development phases and their corresponding tasks. The phases include:

Tasks cover ideation, creation, and approval of various components in the software lifecycle. The tasks you include will be fairly intuitive but should always be compared to successful cycles of the past and potential conflicts of the future before finalization.

Different types of release checklists

While each of the following checklists serve a unique purpose, they are all aimed towards a common goal. They can easily be organized by following an identical structure for each one. Yasmin Nozari , an expert product manager, uses task name, owner, and status as her base. Not only does it help her productivity (another expertise of hers), but it also streamlines the process.

Speaking of productivity, we’ve compiled some base checklists you can use to get started with your release management plan, including one that can be used for Agile in IT operations . Add your own unique tasks to these other common project requirements to get the ball rolling:

Release readiness checklist

Agile software release checklist

Software product launch checklist

Product release checklist

QA release checklist

How to choose release management software for your project

The key to successful release management is planning poker , visibility into real-time progress, detailed task and workflow customization, and visual tools that keep everyone on track. A great release management software will have all of that plus teamwide Agile and automation support. When searching for a software, consider how easy it is to adopt so you can get entire teams onboarded that much faster. Also, be on the lookout for solutions that strike a balance between supporting complex development cycles and providing simple yet effective action items for teams.

Why use UDN Task Manager as your release management tool?

UDN Task Manager is a project management platform that can be used as a highly effective release management tool for new and experienced engineers. It’s a visual platform from start to finish. That includes tools like a personalized dashboard that gives managers an overview of all active project statuses at a single glance. It also means Gantt charts, which turn due dates and tasks from the entire project into one in-depth yet simple color-coded schedule.

Release management relies on this kind of high-level transparency. But it also requires visibility into the nitty-gritty details of tasks to keep everyone on the same page and reduce error. After all, release management is all about taking action. That’s why UDN Task Manager has created tasks that managers can easily assign to team members. Users can do things like designate priority levels and hold entire discussions right within each relevant task, looping in stakeholders and other team members with the intuitive @mention feature.

Ready to turbocharge productivity with release management? Check out our two-week free trial of UDN Task Manager to start using our detailed and helpful task creation, organization, and collaboration features.