Stabilize Release and Deployment Management


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

If you're already a member, click here to log in.

Major Business Pain Points

  • 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.
Stabilize Release and Deployment Management-Pain Points

Recommendations

Key Points

  • 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.
Stabilize Release and Deployment Management-Recommendations

Approach

  • 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.

Methodology and Tools

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
  • Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phases 1-4

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.

  • Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 1: Analyze Current State
  • Release Management Maturity Assessment
  • Release Management Project Roadmap Tool

Release Management Workflow Library

  • Release Management Standard Operating Procedure
  • Patch Management Policy
  • Release Management Policy
  • Release Management Deployment Tracker
  • Release Management Build Procedure Template

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.

  • Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 2: Release and Deployment Planning

3. Build, test, deploy

Take a holistic and comprehensive approach to effectively designing and building releases. Get everything right the first time.

  • Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 3: Build, Test, Deploy

4. Measure, manage, improve

Determine desired goals for release management to ensure both IT and the business see the benefits of implementation.

  • Stabilize Release and Deployment Management – Phase 4: Measure, Manage, Improve

All resources on this page are provided to Cyber Leadership Hub members under license from third parties including Info-Tech Research Group Inc, a global leader in providing IT research and advice.