Planning and managing a release
During the planning and managing phase, your primary goal is to develop an overall release structure, add the appropriate approved changes, and identify configuration item (CI) relationships and dependencies. Throughout the release process, you can view process details and monitor overall progress.
- Initiating a new release
You can initiate a new release in either of two ways: by creating and submitting a release process request in the Process Requests application; or by going directly to the Releases application and creating the release in response to another type of request or a perceived need in the data center. After a release request is submitted, a Release Owner responds to the request and accepts or rejects the release. - Managing interaction between change and release management
A release always produces changes to one or more configuration items (CIs), such as software installations, servers, and client workstations. CI changes are managed through the change management process. Therefore, a release must be associated with one or more approved changes that are scheduled in your data center. A change that is associated with a release cannot be completed until the release is completed. - Applying response plans
Response plans are used to automatically set values on a release. For example, they can be used to select the correct job plans for your releases. This capability is useful for defining how different kinds of releases will be handled. The use of response plans results in predictable, repeatable behavior in the processing of release requests, because the response plans ensure that similar releases always behave the same way. - Applying a job plan
A job plan is a description of the tasks to be performed for a release. After you apply a job plan to a new release, it becomes the work plan for the release and can be modified without changing the job plan. You can apply a job plan in either of two ways: by selecting an existing job plan and applying it to the release, or by creating a new job plan for the release. - Creating tasks
Tasks can be created at any time during the release process. When you create a release, you typically create a sequence of tasks that is sufficient to define the overall structure of the release work plan. Tasks are defined in greater detail during the Plan Rollout phase, when a task is created for each deployment at each site that is involved in a release. Related tasks can be grouped in activities as a way to efficiently organize the release work plan. - Scheduling a release
Scheduling a release is a key part of the release planning process. When you set the schedule, you establish dates for the release, and for any tasks that you want to schedule at this time, in the Plans tab. Fields are provided for specifying start and finish times. - Implementing a task
The Release Specialist is the user who claims and performs tasks during a release. When a task is approved and given the INPROG status, it is displayed in the Start Center of the task owner, and can be clicked and claimed for completion. This topic describes the process of completing a task. - Tracking ongoing releases
This product provides a number of features that help you track ongoing releases. You can view a Workplan Map of the tasks that are defined for a release, and you can track release updates. - Modifying CI attributes
Use this task to specify configuration item (CI) attributes that are modified by a release. For example, a release that involves moving a server and updating its hostname results in a modification to the hostname attribute for the CI. When you specify a CI attribute modification using this task, the CI is automatically updated with the specified modification when the change is completed.
Parent topic: Managing releases
Related concepts: