Stabilize Release and Deployment Management

Maintain both speed and control while improving the quality of deployments and releases within the infrastructure team.

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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

Your Challenge

Lack of control over the release process
Poor collaboration between teams
Manual deployments that 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.

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.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is a four call advisory process.

Call #1 - Analyze the current state

Call #2 - Release and deployment planning

Call #3 - Build, test, and deploy

Call #4 - Measure, manage, and improve

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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.

Course information:

Title: Release Management
Number of Course Modules: 5
Estimated Time to Complete: 1.5-2 hours
Featured Analysts:
Sandi Conrad, Practice Lead, I&O Research
Ken Weston, Senior Research Analyst, I&O Practice
Now Playing: Academy: Release Management | Executive Brief

Book Your Workshop

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

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

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.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Workshop

10/10

$63,667

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%. It is currently about 70 degrees here is Texas

Debswana

Guided Implementation

9/10

$29,923

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

Town Of Oakville

Guided Implementation

9/10

$10,000

Donaldson Company, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$14,643

I have feedback on the best part. Every time I meet with an Info-Tech analyst there is at least one "Ah-Ha" takeaway and this call was no exception. I really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to engage with experts in these fields and value their knowledge.

Dunelm Soft Furnishings Ltd

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Rabobank

Guided Implementation

6/10

$1,273

N/A

Guardian Shared Services Limited

Guided Implementation

8/10

$6,366

Paul was very insightful, and provided a depth of knowledge that has allowed us to implement a robust framework.

Boyd Gaming

Guided Implementation

6/10

N/A

Always positive experiences with dealing with Paul Brown and Co. Always get valuable insight and roadmap contribution and confirmation. Thanks again.

Aspect Software

Guided Implementation

6/10

$1,273

N/A

I truly enjoyed working with Paul on both our Change and Release Management processes. He had a significant impact on our overall approach and his guidance and insights were invaluable.

City of Nampa

Guided Implementation

6/10

$6,366

N/A

Valence helped guide us through our bumpy start to defining what is the best fit for our team. We are a small department that has been working for years without existing policies. We are a team that accomplishes a lot, but implementing policies amongst so many established team members is a challenge. Any negative experiences really had more to do with our end of things, as the guided implementation was vital to keeping us on track.

TechnipFMC

Guided Implementation

6/10

$87,002

It's been great working with Valence Howard, the information we receive is truly valuable.