Release & Deployment Management

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Welcome to the Release and Deployment Management learning. Click each sequential tab below to find key learnings and information.

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Introduction ::

Release and Deployment Management Goals

The Release and Deployment Management processes fit within the Service Transition phase of the Service Lifecycle. Release and Deployment Management is responsible for building, testing, and deploying service release and service changes to production.

Goals and Objectives

The main goals of Release and Deployment Management processes are to
Deploy releases into the production environment, and
Establish the effective use of the provided service.

These goals deliver value to the customer and support the transition "handover" of services to the service operations.

The objectives of Release and Deployment Management are to ensure:

clear and comprehensive deployment plans for distribution and installation are produced.
release plans are successfully built, tested, and deployed per schedule committments.
all releases are resonably tracked, installed, verified or uninstalled, or backed out if necessary.
any new or changed service and respective systems & technologies are capable of delivering the agreed service requirements.
appropriate knowledge transfer to operations and support teams does occur.
integrity of production services is protected with minimal unpredicted impact to business operations.

Release: Scope | Benefits & Results {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

The scope of Release and Deployment Management includes the processes, systems, and functions needed to package, build, test, and deploy a release into production, and to establish that the service specified in the Service Reference Design is complete & stable before the final hand over to the service operations.

Benefits / Value

Efficient	Deliver change faster, at optimum cost, and with minimal risk.
Effective	Improve implementation consistency across the business change, sevice teams, suppliers, customers.
Fit for Purpose	Ensure customers & users can use the new/changed service to support the business goals.
Traceable	Contribute meeting audit requirements for traceability.

Release and Deployment Management: Benefits

Results / Outcome

A well-planned, implemented release and deployment process positively contributes to an organization's service costs savings & avoidance.

A poorly designed release and deployment process can result in IT personnel spending substantial time & effort troubleshooting issues and managing complexity. A poor release can cripple and degrade the services available in the production environment

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Release: Definition {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

A release is a collection of one or more authorized changes to an IT service. The contents of each Release Package are managed, tested, and deployed as a single entity. A Release Package may be comprised of a single Release Unit, or a structured set of multiple release units. A Release Unit is the portion of the IT infrastructure that is normally released together. It also describes CIs that can be distributed independently of each other. A Release Unit includes the hardware, software, documentation, processes, and any other components required to successfully implement one or more of the approved changes.

Release and Deployment Management targets determining the most appropriate Release Unit level for each service asset or component being implemented.

Factors to consider when deciding the appropriate level for Release Units:

Modularity of components and interdependencies.
Ease and amount of change necessary to release & deploy a Release Unit.
Amount of resources and time needed to build, test, distribute, and implement a Release Unit.
Complexity of interfaces between the proposed unit and other related services/IT infrastructure.
Storage available in the build, test, distribution, and live environments.

Example of a Release Unit structure: Release Package 9 v2.0

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Release: Policies {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

A policy expresses management expectations and intentions used to govern a process, direct decisions, and to ensure consistent and appropriate development & implementation of processes, standards, roles, etc.

At the service level, Release policies clarify critical items such as

Release Types	The required documents and deliverables & tasks pertinent to the release.
Release Units	The portion(s) of the IT infrastructure to be released together versus as independent items.
Release Identification Methodology	The identified numbering schema used for each release as dictated by policy, e.g., a number schema including reference to the CI it represents + version control sequencing.
Release Frequency	The frequency of each release type occurrence.

2 Release Policies There are two key release policies established for Release and Deployment Management.

Policy # 1: All Releases to the IT production environment must be recorded.	Policy # 2: All Releases must have entry and exit criteria defined, and receive proper approval for acceptance.
The intent of this policy is to provide a holistic view of planned deployments to production to provide a forward schedule of change.	The intent of this policy is to ensure entry and exit criteria are defined for each product/service, is included as part of the Service Reference Design document, and is input to the Release & Deployment Management process. protect the integrity of the production environment.

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Additional Resources

The following resources provide further learning opportunities and additional information:

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Release & Deployment Mgt: Roles ::

Release and Deployment Management Roles

There are two key roles who support the Release and Deployment Management service processes. These roles work closely together to ensure release and deployment success.

Role

Responsibilities

Release & Deployment Manager

The Release & Deployment Manager focuses on:

> Manage all aspects of the end-to-end release process including the build, configuration, testing,
distribution, and installation of hardware and software.
> For large & complex release scopes, form teams to manage the needed release activities.

Additional primary responsibilities include:

Validate the release effectiveness prior to accepting it for implementation.
Ensure coordination of the build and test environment team and the release team.
Secure sustaining resources (i.e., KTBR) and document in the Deployment plan.
Review incoming release requests to confirm RFC's comply with the service's existing release policies (e.g. release date, CI compatibility, release types, deployment method, cross dependencies).
Create a release specific deployment plan for all planning and implementation tasks.
Ensure release communication, preparation, and training occur in a timely manner.
Ensure the release post-implementation stabilization activities are planned and occur in a timely manner (Early Life Support).

Service Test Manager

The Service Test Manager focuses on:

> Oversee the test support and test teams involved with a release package. Ensure that the test teams
consider other services impacted by a release package, and the teams evaluate each proposed release
package to validate it is fit to use / fit for purpose for the entire infrastructure, not just the one service.

Additional primary responsibilities include:

Engage early in the release process (as soon as a release is requested) and work closely with the Release & Deployment Manager(s).
Verify the Solution Quality Analyst's (SQAs) testing meets the horizontal end-to-end testing and is executed according to the service's release policy. (i.e., it is fit to use / fit for purpose).
Follow the problem management processes so that unresolved defects are properly recorded as a known error with a mitigation/work around solution.
Verifies tests conducted by solution quality analyst's are completed according to the release plan.
Define the holistic release test strategy for his/her service.

Other Roles {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

The Release and Deployment Manager can also interact with other roles as described below. These roles are performed by people who are likely engaged in an intact team that supports a specific service or service portfolio.

Release Packaging & Build Manager (i.e Developer)

Release packaging and build management is the flow of work (design, build, test, deploy, operate and optimize) to deliver applications and infrastructure that meet the Service Design requirements. Responsibilities include: establishes the final release configuration, builds the final release delivery, tests prior to handling over to the Service Test Manager and Test team.

Test Support Resources

Provides independent testing of all components delivered within the Service Transition project.

Deployment Management Staff

Manage and/or execute the final physical delivery of the service implementation; coordinate release documentation and communications, including technical release notes; provide technical guidance/support throughout the release.

Early Life Support Staff

Early Life Support should be considered an integral role within the release & deployment phase. Early Life Support staff should include the PM (or whoever will lead Early Life Support activities), and other members of the Release & Deployment team, including the incident manager, Problem Manager and Knowledge Manager for the service. These staff members should have been involved during the early planning phase of release and deployment.

Responsibilities include: provide initial support in response to incidents and errors related to the release; ensure delivery of appropriate support documentation; provide initial performance reporting; ensure exit criteria is met prior to handoff to Ops Support; manage formal transition of the service/release to Service Operations.

Environment Management

As environment resources are normally limited, this role performs a coordinating and sometimes arbitrary role to ensure that resources are used to maximum effect. This function is primarily to ensure that all the relevant people have the appropriate environments, test data, versioned software, etc. Available at the time they need it and for the right purpose. Build & test environments should be managed and protected appropriately.

Responsibilities include:

ensure infrastructure & app is built to design specs;
plan acquisition, build, implementation & maintenance of infrastructure;
ensure build delivery components are from controlled sources;
deliver appropriate build, operations and support documentation for the build and test environments
build, deliver and maintain required testing environments.

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Processes | KPIs ::

Release and Deployment Management: Process Inputs / Outputs

Release and Deployment Management uses the controlling processes of Change Management to request approval to deploy changes, and it uses Problem Management to record known errors and work arounds. Change Management reviews, assesses, authorizes, controls, and coordinates changes to the live production environment. The relationship how Release and Deployment Management processes fit within the broader scope of Change Management processes recognizes key contributing factors for success.

The below high-level process flow identifies the process flow inputs, process activities, and the resulting outputs that occur in the process framework. Observe that the final output may include known errors that occur due to a new or changed service introduced in the live production environment. The change may have identified errors which are minor enough to be acceptable for use. The errors may be under active investigation and resolution by the service builder(s), or they may be considered acceptable given nominal affects on the service and operations. In either case, the errors can be deployed into the live error database as an element of the deployment for the live service. The error information is available through the Knowledge Management System for IT Technical Assistance Center (TAC) reference, who will link related incidents reported against the known errors for the purposes of tracking, traceability, and ongoing resolution steps.

Release and Deployment Management: Process Flow Details {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Place your cursor over each Release and Deployment Management activity (number 7.1 to 7.6) for further information.

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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Several typical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) KPI's used for Release & Deployment Management are:

Improved adoption of Release & Deployment Management Process	Monitors the process in the adoption of a Release & Deployment Management business process.
# of Unresolved Known Errors	Determine if known errors are sufficiently documented in order to ensure no impact to the production environment and to provide L1 known work around to enable quick resolution of customer calls.
% of linked incidents to Errors	Tracks the number of incidents caused by the release and rate the release based on the number.

Other indicator reports are available that could be analyzed to ensure efficient and effective process, but the above provides a good set to use on a management dashboard.

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|| Completion || ::

When you have completed the learning in this content, click the below Track Completion button.

This allows the IT Service Management team to know that you have completed this learning and are prepared for relevant next steps.

Click when you are finished.

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