1.     Release Management

In software companies that work with live environments, continuous improvement of software and the seamless delivery of new features to end-users can only be achieved through well-planned and managed processes. In software development processes, especially with rapidly evolving approaches such as CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) and Agile methodologies, development teams are enabled to make frequent and reliable deployments. However, this speed brings greater complexity and risk. The risk of errors and incompatibilities in the system with each new release can only be controlled through a well-organized release management process.

Since the live environment is an area where users interact in real-time and business processes are directly affected, any software update made here carries risks. A potential error or system outage can lead to a decrease in service quality, customer dissatisfaction, and revenue loss.

Therefore, a carefully planned release management process is essential to ensure these updates are applied on time, correctly, and completely.

Release management not only plans when and how a software update will be released, but also ensures that the release process is carefully monitored, feedback is managed, and any issues that arise are quickly resolved.

As user demands increase and software systems become more complex, release management has become an indispensable cornerstone for companies.

1.1.  Release Management Process: Step-by-Step Workflow

This covers the steps followed from the idea stage of a new software version to its transition to live. The process begins primarily with requirement gathering and planning. Then, developers create the software, Release Managers ensure its deployment to the testing environment, and test engineers conduct their tests. Afterward, the reliability and compatibility of the software are ensured, and approval is obtained. During the go-live phase, updates are seamlessly presented to the user, and system performance is monitored. Finally, feedback is collected, and the process is reviewed to make improvements for future releases.

Planning and Requirement Gathering: The requirements for new features or changes are defined. The features to be developed are evaluated for their alignment with customer needs and business goals. After gathering project requirements, the scope and objectives are clarified. In this phase, business analysts, product owners, project managers, and release managers may be involved.

Creating the Release Schedule: A release schedule is prepared based on the defined requirements, covering development, testing, and live deployment processes. The schedule ensures all teams follow the process simultaneously. Sufficient time must be allocated for the development of the software meeting the requirements, deployment to test environments, testing, and timely deployment to the live environment. This schedule facilitates team coordination.

Development Phase: Developers begin writing code based on the defined requirements. New features, improvements, or bug fixes are developed.

Software engineers and configuration managers may be involved.

Deployment, Testing, and Quality Control Phase: Release managers deploy the code to the test environment. Test teams run various tests on the code, such as functional tests, integration tests, and user acceptance tests. If errors are found, feedback is provided, and the process returns to the development phase. Release managers, test engineers, QA engineers, and software developers are involved at this stage.

Approval Process and Final Evaluation: After successful tests, approval is obtained from all relevant teams (management, security, operations).

This step is the final check before the software goes live. The role of release managers is crucial here, and they can be thought of as the gatekeepers at this point.

Go-Live Transition: After tests are completed and necessary approvals are obtained, the code is deployed to the live environment. The new version is presented to the user and becomes operational in the live environment. The operations team plays a role in this process.

Live Environment Monitoring and Feedback: The software’s performance is monitored in the live environment. User experience and technical performance are evaluated. Potential errors are quickly identified and fixed. Any shortcomings or requirements that were not properly addressed during the test phase are analyzed and reported. Feedback from users is collected for improvements in future releases. The release management team, operations team, and customer support team may all be involved.

1.2.  Key Roles and Responsibilities in the Release Management Process

The roles of individuals involved in the workflow above are crucial for the effective execution of the process. Their detailed responsibilities are as follows:

Release Manager:

• Responsible for planning, implementing, and deploying software releases.
• Creating and updating the release schedule.
• Collaborating with development, testing, and operations teams.
• Managing the deployment process and obtaining necessary approvals before release.
• Monitoring and reporting post-release performance, tracking errors, and resolution processes.

Software Engineer:

• Responsible for designing, developing, and creating software solutions.
• Understanding and fulfilling software requirements.
• Writing code, performing unit tests, and participating in code reviews.

Project Manager:

• Responsible for ensuring the software development project is completed on time, within budget, and meets defined objectives.
• Creating and managing project plans.
• Facilitating communication between teams and improving collaboration.
• Monitoring and reporting project progress.
• Identifying and managing risks.

DevOps Engineer:

• Serves as a bridge between development and operations teams, ensuring process automation and integration.
• Implementing and managing CI/CD processes.
• Developing tools for managing and automating infrastructure.
• Monitoring performance and troubleshooting.
• Developing methods to improve inter-team collaboration.

Stakeholders:

• All individuals involved in the software development process (users, upper management, business analysts, etc.).
• Defining project requirements.
• Providing feedback on software outputs.
• Influencing the usability and functionality of the software.

System Administrator:

• Responsible for maintaining a healthy
• infrastructure and ensuring the secure operation of software systems.
• Managing servers, databases, and networks.
• Monitoring system performance after software deployment.
• Managing user access and security measures.

The release management process involves many roles and responsibilities in software development and deployment. Each role makes important contributions at different stages of the process, and effective collaboration enhances both software quality and deployment speed.

Therefore, understanding the tasks of each role is critical to a successful release management process.

1.3.  Risk Management: Challenges and Risks Encountered in the Release Management Process

As mentioned earlier, the goal of the release management process is to deliver software from its development phase to the live environment in a secure and uninterrupted manner. However, software deployment can sometimes bring various risks. Technical issues, timing errors, security vulnerabilities, or insufficient testing processes can threaten system stability and lead to an increase in errors. Developing strategies to minimize these risks in the release management process is crucial.

Below, we will discuss common risks in the release management process and their solutions.

Technical Errors and Compatibility Issues: Sometimes, a new version may work smoothly in the development and testing environments, but that does not necessarily mean it will perform the same in the live environment. Incompatibilities or performance issues may occur in different systems. Problems can arise from the difference between test data and actual customer data.

Solution: To minimize this risk, comprehensive pre-release testing should be performed, including performance tests and user acceptance testing (UAT). The test data should be as close as possible to real customer data, and realistic data scenarios should be created in the test environment. A test environment close to the live environment can be set up, and continuous monitoring should ensure that the test and live environments remain consistent. The root cause of errors in the live environment can be identified, and new test scenarios can be created for these situations, thereby reducing the risk of similar issues occurring.

Planning and Timing Errors: In the release process, deficiencies in planning, especially incorrect timing (e.g., having short testing periods for large projects), can lead to errors.

Solution: To avoid this, when creating a release schedule, other projects and workloads should be taken into account, and updates should be planned outside of peak times.

Insufficient Testing Processes: Insufficient or superficial test planning can cause users to encounter errors, which may lead to system failures and customer dissatisfaction in the live environment.

Solution: The software should be tested in all aspects, especially critical systems, with expanded test coverage, and automated testing systems should be used.

Acceptance Criteria for Testing: These are conditions that define whether a particular feature or function of the software has been successfully completed and the tests have been passed.

For example, when the correct username and password are entered, the user should be able to log in. Here’s a set of criteria:

• The user enters a valid username and password.
• The system redirects the user to the homepage.
• The user should see the “Welcome” message.

Similarly, when the username is entered incorrectly, the system should display a “Invalid username” message:

• The user enters an invalid username (e.g., “invaliduser”).
• The system should show an “Invalid username” message.
• The user cannot log in.

These criteria ensure that development teams understand the requirements correctly and help evaluate whether the software performs as expected.

Acceptance criteria are typically related to user stories and clearly define how the software should function.

Communication Gaps: Communication gaps between the teams involved in the release management process, as mentioned above, can increase the complexity of the process and make risk management more difficult. For instance, failing to provide detailed information about the project size to the release manager can lead to gaps in the release schedule. If the system’s startup and shutdown information during deployment is not communicated between the teams, confusion may arise on deployment night.

Solution: Regular meetings should be held to address such communication needs, and it is crucial to ensure everyone’s participation in these meetings.

Lack of Logging and Monitoring: Failing to record all steps and errors during the release process makes it difficult to learn from past mistakes and can lead to recurring problems.

Solution: The entire process should be logged and monitored in detail.

Documentation should be created for the actions taken and any issues encountered. For example, developers should record all code changes and previous versions for the release. Successful test results in the test environment should also be documented. After the code is deployed to the live environment, any errors should be reported, and the root cause can be investigated.

Lack of a Rollback Strategy: If a significant issue arises in a version deployed to the live environment and a quick rollback is not performed, this can cause service outages.

Solution: A rollback document should be prepared before deploying the code to the live environment, explaining how the rollback code should be implemented. Additionally, the previous and correct versions of the code should also be provided.

Dependency and Integration Issues: Software releases often require integration with existing systems or external services. During these integrations, incompatibilities between systems can cause interruptions in data flow, performance issues, or errors. For example, differences in data formats expected by one system and those produced by another system can lead to communication issues. Additionally, during integration, if a service performs slower than expected or returns incorrect responses, it can disrupt the entire process.

Solution: Detailed integration planning should be carried out. The functionality and data requirements of each system should be analyzed, and integration requirements should be defined. A middleware or data transformation layer can be designed to ensure compatibility between systems with incompatible data formats. Automated integration tests should be applied to ensure that data formats, workflows, and performance meet expectations. A simulated version of the systems being integrated can be created to test the software release before actual integration. This allows potential incompatibilities to be identified before causing issues in live systems.

Change Management Deficiencies: Sudden or irregular changes can disrupt the release process and cause errors. Especially emergency changes can introduce risks. For example, let’s consider a situation where a code passes all tests in the test environment but encounters an error in the live environment. The deployment team may perform a rollback in the live environment. However, they must inform the testing team, developers, and release managers about this. If not communicated, the test and live environments may become inconsistent. In such a scenario, testers continue working on the old version, and developers continue to work on the old version as well. When the prepared code is ready for deployment, issues may occur again.

Solution: The rollback process should follow a specific procedure and be automated. After a rollback, all relevant stakeholders (developers, test engineers, release managers) should be immediately informed, and detailed information should be provided regarding the impact of the changes. To quickly observe the impact of rollback operations and release changes on the test environment, continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) processes should be utilized. These processes allow immediate reporting of the effects of changes in the live environment on the test environment and development process, enabling early detection of issues.

If proper risk management strategies are not applied in the release management process, it can lead to significant business and service interruptions. Therefore, being aware of risks at every step of the process and taking necessary precautions is critical to ensuring the delivery of high-quality and reliable software releases.

Authors:

Gulselin GULER KORKMAZ

Zehra TURHAN

Betul ABACI

Busra SACAKLI

Bengunur GULTEKIN

Ahsen KAS