What is Release Management?
Release management is a software engineering process that involves planning, scheduling, coordinating, and controlling the deployment of software releases across different environments, such as development, testing, staging, and production. It encompasses various activities aimed at ensuring the smooth and efficient delivery of software products or updates to end-users or customers.
Here is some key terminology for release management process:
Release
A version of a software product that is made available for deployment, typically identified by a unique version number or designation.
Deployment
The process of installing or making a software release available for use in a specific environment, such as production servers or client devices.
Environment
A distinct operational context or setting in which software is developed, tested, deployed, and used, such as development, testing, staging, and production environments.
Version Control
The management of changes to documents, files, or software code over time, enabling teams to track revisions, manage concurrent work, and facilitate collaboration.
Change Management
The process of controlling and managing changes to software or systems in a structured manner to minimize disruption, assess impact, and ensure proper documentation and approval.
Configuration Management
The discipline of identifying, organizing, and controlling software and system components to ensure consistency, traceability, and integrity throughout the development and release lifecycle.
Continuous Integration (CI)
A software development practice where code changes are automatically integrated into a shared repository frequently, often several times a day, followed by automated builds and tests to detect and address integration errors early.
Continuous Deployment (CD)
An extension of continuous integration where code changes are automatically deployed to production environments after passing automated tests, enabling rapid and frequent releases with minimal manual intervention.
Rollback
The process of reverting a software release to a previous version or state, typically performed in response to issues or failures encountered after deployment.
Release Notes
Documentation accompanying a software release that provides information about the changes, enhancements, bug fixes, known issues, and other relevant details to assist users and administrators in understanding and utilizing the new release.
Release Pipeline
A structured and automated workflow that defines the stages, tasks, and approvals required to move a software release from development through testing and deployment to production.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A contractual agreement between a service provider and a customer specifying the level of service, performance metrics, and support commitments for the delivered software or service.
