Skip to main content
Version: 1.0.0

Release Management

Release Management is the process of managing, planning, scheduling and controlling a software build through different stages and environments; from development to production deployment. The goal of release management is to ensure software releases are delivered reliably and with minimal disruption to users.

Release management involves several key steps:

  • Planning - Determining release frequency, assigning release managers, communicating timelines to stakeholders.

  • Building/packaging - Compiling code, running tests, creating build artifacts/packages.

  • Testing - Executing automated and manual tests in QA environments. Performing smoke tests with each new build.

  • Deployment - Installing and configuring the release into test/staging environments first before final deployment to production.

  • Monitoring - Tracking deployments, monitoring application health/performance, watching for issues.

  • Communication - Keeping stakeholders informed of release status through meetings, reports and tools like slack.

Effective release management ensures a smooth transition of changes into production, reducing risk and providing reliability. It coordinates cross-functional teams like developers, testers, ops and business owners. Automation tools help accelerate and improve consistency of releases.