Stabilize Release and Deployment Management

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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.

Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Executive Brief

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.

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.

3. Build, test, deploy

Take a holistic and comprehensive approach to effectively designing and building releases. Get everything right the first time.

4. Measure, manage, improve

Determine desired goals for release management to ensure both IT and the business see the benefits of implementation.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.6/10

Overall Impact

$38,699

Average $ Saved

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Pima County Community College District

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Ben is outstanding! A perfect 10 doesn't even begin to explain how much value he provided in our engagement. We conceptually knew what we wanted,... Read More

City Of Chesapeake

Workshop

9/10

N/A

Best part: Being a part of the process of working through the challenges; active engagement identifying the issues within our environment, and solu... Read More

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Assoc.

Guided Implementation

9/10

$44,099

Best-When working with Info-Tech I know I am getting great service and and industry leading processes which helped me reach our end goal. Worst-... Read More

AJIL Financial Services Company

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

The analyst went beyond what was expected, walking with us all the way.

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Workshop

10/10

$61,999

Entire workshop went very well and brought multiple process improvements to light. Worst part is that not all of management was able to attend 100%... Read More

Debswana

Guided Implementation

9/10

$29,944

I enjoyed the insights Tom offered as well as the process flow

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Release Management

Improve the speed and success rate of your deployments.
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.

Now Playing:
Academy: Release Management | Executive Brief

An active membership is required to access Info-Tech Academy

Course Modules: 5
Estimated Completion Time: 1.5-2 hours

Featured Analysts:
Sandi Conrad, Practice Lead, I&O Research
Ken Weston, Senior Research Analyst, I&O Practice

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.

Module 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

Outputs

1.1

Evaluate process maturity.

Maturity Assessment

1.2

Assess release management challenges.

Release Management Policy

1.3

Define roles and responsibilities.

Release Management Standard Operating Procedure

1.4

Review and rightsize existing policy suite.

Patch Management Policy

Module 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

Outputs

2.1

Design target state release planning process.

Release Planning Workflow

2.2

Define, bundle, and categorize releases.

Categorization and prioritization schemes

2.3

Standardize deployment plans and models.

Deployment models aligned to release types

Module 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

Outputs

3.1

Standardize build procedures for deployments.

Build procedure for hardware and software releases

3.2

Standardize test plans aligned to release types.

Test models aligned to deployment models

Module 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

Outputs

4.1

Determine key metrics to track progress.

List of metrics and goals

4.2

Establish a post-deployment review process.

Post-deployment validation checklist

4.3

Understand and define continual improvement drivers.

Project roadmap

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.