Release Management
Release methodologies varies slightly from one organization to the next. Though the general list of procedures usually holds true across the board. This list is very general in that it doesn’t account for major, minor, emergency bug fixes, delta, beta releases, etc. Oftentimes, a large chunk of these steps are missing for start-ups or organizations lacking proper processes. With that in mind, here is the list:
- SCM Release Build Delivered to SQA
- Acceptance Testing all Passed (Thumbs up from SQA)
- Release Management and Schedule Plan
- Request Part Number/Barcode from Operations
- Gather Release Signatures (Physical or E-Sig)
- Run Virus Scan (Document Machine Environment Details, Scan Engine and Definition File Version)
- Cut 4 Copies of Binary CD/DVD (One Master goes to SCM Archive Library, Another goes to Operations for CD Replication/Production, One goes to Engineering Archive Library, Last one goes to Off-site Secured Storage*)
- Cut 2 Copies of Source/Build-Scripts CD/DVD (One Master goes to SCM Archive Library, Another goes to off-site Secured Storage*)
- Enters Production Domain (Distribution via CD/DVD, Web, FTP, etc..)
- Celebrations, etc.
*For off-site storage, some companies actually have two locations for storage; one in west coast while the other in the east.
Above is an outline for actual software distribution via CD/DVD medium. For exclusive web releases, the steps are similar minus the CD/DVD cutting of the binary deliverables.