Feel the Release

What does release management make you think of?

Do some of these thoughts include overnight deployments, exhausted developers, bug-filled releases, downtimes, and infuriated users?

If so, you may need to adjust your perspective on the release management process.

In today’s ever-changing business environment, there’s no margin for error. Unfortunately, a staggering number of issues still stem from changes in the software or their environment.

Therefore, to save your money and get a good night’s sleep, you should invest in a robust release management process.

We recommend using our tips to implement this change.

But first, let’s get familiar with the basics.

What is it?

For those not in-the-know, release management is a high-impact process that includes the planning, controlling, and scheduling involved in software building.

This process spans across every development phase, from the 'discovery and development' phase to the 'deployment and release' phase of the software.

Genius!

Why use it?

The following red flags might mean that you need a better release management plan:

Everyone involved feels jittery.

Your process includes inefficient manual steps that are deeply ingrained into the workflow. There’s only one team member who really knows how to get the code deployed.

The ‘Big Bang Release’ is a common thing in your system. Your plan is: To go live and pray for the best. (Yiykes)

Not all Feature Flags Wear Capes

Faster, safer, and continuous delivery is no longer a far-fetched dream.

Everyone can enjoy this peace of mind by performing gradual feature rollouts and fixing bugs without redeploying.

The shortcut to achieving this version of heaven is feature flagging.

Once a new product feature is uploaded to the actual server, your development team can make the new feature visible to only a small percentage of users, and then scale up as needed.

Structure

To enjoy a safe and quick delivery, you need to establish a regular release cycle and create a routine.

Feature Workflows help organizations secure a custom, standardized release workflow template and ensure that release activities stay consistent across all participating teams.

Fast Results

Technology performing at human speed is no longer an option.

In today’s intense tech rivalry, timely releases are like oxygen for companies.

This need for speedy results amounts to the current automation craze which allows organizations to keep up with the fast-changing pace.

Automation of release processes improves accelerated releases and progressive delivery strategies. It also reduces cycle times and provides rapid feedback on deployments and releases.

So… it’s a like a total prerequisite.

State Your Desires, Clearly

Set up clear requirements for the 'configuration plan' in order to keep your team motivated.

It will keep your developers updated on the development process while decreasing the risk of bugs that slow down feature deployments.

We also recommend monitoring your success with KPI. Examples of KPIs include a specific error rate and/or the total amount of user downloads.

Protect the Users

The ultimate goal of any release manager is to roll out new features quickly while reducing downtime or impact to an application's users.

If something goes wrong in production, feature flags will help developers to respond to incidents quickly and minimize the blast radius of the error.

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