Is there any difference between release management and project management? If you are venturing into the management realm in the software industry, you might have been presented with this question at least once in your career.
While IT release management and Project Management are related roles, certain differences exist between these two disciplines.
Project Management
Project management generally encompasses project execution within a specific framework, predefined budget, and timeline. The fundamental roles of a project manager include initiating projects, preparation and project organisation, supervision of project workflows, monitoring, and communication.
The project management realm specifically focuses on organising and allocating resources within the expected budget, time, and quality estimates for the smooth execution of software deployment.
DataOps platform management, DevSecOps management, etc., have resemblances with the project management framework.
Release Management
Release management fundamentally focuses on managing the flow of changes through several pre-production environments, finally leading to successful deployment in the production environment in a seamless and streamlined way.
Release activities encompass strategic planning, design and development, configuration, deployment planning, quality testing, deployment, and feedback. The goal of release management is to make the Change management process more predictable, seamless, and constructive.
With the conceptualisation DevSecOps solutions, security is also now an integral part of every release management phase.
Although the release and project management concepts have certain differences, both the disciplines share structural characteristics categorised into several stages.
Before we discuss the various steps in release management, let's first briefly go through the project management phases.
Core Project Management Process
- Fostering Communication, Collaboration, And Partnership
Communication and collaboration between different team members of a project are exceptionally vital for successful software development and deployment.
At the leadership project management level, business concerns should be precisely identified and analysed without any emotional influence. It is critical to eliminate both internal and external organisational bottlenecks and ensure all relevant stakeholders work towards achieving a common goal for project success.
DevSecOps solutions emphasise open communication between the development security and operations team for secure and high-performing product delivery.
- Proactive Project Status Reporting With Transparency
Many Enterprises have the tendency to define overly optimistic and almost impractical software product launch dates by completely ignoring the realities and actual limitations. As a result, the design and development phase gets extended, while the timeline doesn't.
To ensure seamless progress across the organisation, it is recommended to identify a line and consistently monitor the project workflows.
Understanding and acknowledging the dependencies from the very beginning of the project and continuous monitoring them across the project life cycle ensures adequate resource allocation and project timelines.
Also Read: DataOps: Building data-intensive projects
- Draft And Follow Standard Risk Management Strategies
Different levels of risk exist in every project. Therefore you need to have a risk management strategy and a team that functions as the first line of Defence when any issues arise and ensure no delays or deviations in the project.
Release Management Process
Now that you've an understanding of the fundamental Project Management process let's delve into the IT release management phases.
The Release Management process may differ depending on the project requirement and team dynamics. However, they usually include the following steps:
- The Planning Stage
Whether your team is working on updating software for creating a completely new product, the release planning phase is essential before the actual development starts.
Planning encompasses clearly defining the release scope and identifying any bottlenecks or roadblocks that might push back the deployment.
Another fundamental component of the planning phase is configuration management. Configuration management Define consistency for product metrics, including performance functionality and design.
Lastly, the release management step must highlight the final product's features and functionality. It needs to specify any related dependencies and risks that may arise during the development stage.
Ensure to leverage a professional DataOps platform for gathering accurate data during the planning phase.
- Application Development And Quality Testing
Although development and testing are two separate stages, they are mutually dependent and iterative in nature.
The actual product designing, coding, and development take place in the build or development stage.
During development, the developers need proper access to the dependencies and risks highlighted in the planning stage. This allows them to identify additional bags and Design better testing scenarios.
The testing stage in DevSecOps solutions is powered by quality standards specified during the planning stage and user feedback. As features reach maturation in the development stage, it is delivered to a specified set of users to collect feedback.
Any bugs or functionality issues reported by the users or identified by the testing team are sent back and rectified in the development stage.
This is an ongoing process unless the product passes the final quality control checks.
- Deployment
After efficient planning, robust development, rigorous testing, and finishing touches, the product is ready for deployment. The deployment phase in IT release management is about sending your production in the live environment where end users are present.
To ensure successful acceptance of the product, you will need to release marketing documentation and a user manual as well.
Finally, the developers and all other relevant stakeholders monitor the release progress and the product acceptance by the end users. Any scope of improvement or feedback is documented and taken up for the next release.
Conclusion
The software release Management process is ever-evolving, with each release presenting opportunities to fine-tune and improve your product and the processes.
To capitalise on this opportunity, you need to have the right tools, including the DataOps platform, release management tools, DevOps solutions, etc. Additionally, you will also need to hire professionals for the smooth integration of these tools. Connect with experts today to streamline your release management process.