A Brief History of Release Management

What is a release management process? A release management process helps to ensure that software is built, tested, and delivered according to specifications. During this process, the software developers will check the software to ensure it works correctly and is delivered on schedule.

Release management started with the shift from project-based companies to product-based companies. Over time it evolved from project-based software engineering to product-based offerings. Under project-based development methods, software developers viewed each release as a project, not as a product. When a project was fully developed, it would signal the end of the developers’ role.

This evolutionary process changed the software development process to more closely resemble a product cycle where products are supported, improved, and repeatedly relaunched over a long period of time. Within the product-based framework, releases are not the end goal of development, but rather a transition point for support and revision.

Why it's important? Release management includes a combination of quality assurance and compliance activities with the management of software artifacts in a central repository (source control), which then releases those software artifacts to a client production environment for application deployment. Software releases are done manually or are automated, depending on the level of sophistication required.

Release management is a subsection of the larger IT discipline of change management. Change Management in software development refers to the evolution of an existing state of the software product to an improved state of the product, controlling, supporting, and managing the changes to artifacts, such as code changes, process changes, or documentation changes. To be successful, the software engineering process must be well synchronized. Release management helps to achieve this.

Key Concepts

  • Terminology in Release Management [link here]
  • Concepts in Release Management [link here]
  • Challenges in Release Management [link here]
  • Objectives and Benefits of Release Management [link here]

Razor improves your release management process

Integrates your issues and bug tracking and version control with your baselines supporting your software releases.

Enables quick releases via Issue Number/Bug Tracking Numbers.

Adopts to your policies and procedures, allowing you to customize the software to your configuration management practices.

Runs across multiple, distributed, disparate operating systems that all use the same user interface for ease of use.

Automatically records all activity and actions for security audit reviews and other compliance measures, for example:

      • Opening a new issue
      • Modifying a version of software
      • Releasing another baseline of your product.
      • and hundreds more data points.

Razor is built as a fully integrated, activity-based Software Configuration Management solution.