Stabilize Release and Deployment Management
Maintain both speed and control while improving the quality of deployments and releases within the infrastructure team.
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
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.
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.
10.0/10
Overall Impact
$35,999
Average $ Saved
20
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
AJIL Financial Services Company
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,000
20
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Workshop
10/10
$61,999
20
Debswana
Guided Implementation
9/10
$29,944
10
Release Management
Improve the speed and success rate of your deployments.
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.
- 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
Onsite Workshop: Stabilize Release and Deployment Management
Onsite 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 onsite 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
Evaluate process maturity.
- Maturity Assessment
Assess release management challenges.
- Release Management Policy
Define roles and responsibilities.
- Release Management Standard Operating Procedure
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
Design target state release planning process.
- Release Planning Workflow
Define, bundle, and categorize releases.
- Categorization and prioritization schemes
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
Standardize build procedures for deployments.
- Build procedure for hardware and software releases
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
Determine key metrics to track progress.
- List of metrics and goals
Establish a post-deployment review process.
- Post-deployment validation checklist
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.
Need Extra Help?
Try Our Guided Implementations
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 4 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call #1 - Analyze the current state
- Call #2 - Release and deployment planning
- Call #3 - Build, test, and deploy
- Call #4 - Measure, manage, and improve
Contributors
- Karen Jennings – Release Manager
- Sunil Shetty – Project Manager, HSBC
- Jordan Liebowitz – Senior IT Manager, Verizon
- Lori Schoenard – Software Development Manager, Proficient Learning, LLC
- Don Loftin – Senior Project Manager, Yoh
- Thomas Buecker – Solution Architect, Unisys
- Vawns Murphy – Analyst, ITSM.tools
- Jorge Silva – Vice President, IPBPM
- Clint Abels – Risk, Security, and Compliance Manager, Distell
- Nilesh Nimkar – Change & Release Manager
- Saravanan Maruthappa – Manager, Cognizant Technology Solutions
- Alex Hall – Endpoint Technology Specialist, Kenosha County, Inc
- Caroline Fennelly – Principal Consultant, CFennelly Consulting
- James Fielder – VP of Information Systems, Farm Credit Services of Illinois
- Annie Carlson – IT Director, Town of Leesburg