Release & Change Management
As software systems, software development processes, and resources become more distributed, they invariably become more specialized and complex. Furthermore, software products (especially web applications) are typically in an ongoing cycle of development, testing, and release. Add to this an evolution and growing complexity of the platforms on which these systems run, and it becomes clear there are a lot of moving pieces that must fit together seamlessly to guarantee the success and long-term value of a product or project.
The need therefore exists for dedicated resources to oversee the integration and flow of development, testing, deployment, and support of these systems. Although project managers have done this in the past, they generally are more concerned with high-level, "grand design" aspects of a project or application, and so often do not have time to oversee some of the more technical or day-to-day aspects. Release Managers (aka "RMs") address this need. They must have a general knowledge of every aspect of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), various applicable operating systems and software application or platforms, as well as various business functions and perspectives.
A Release Manager is:-
- Facilitator
Serves as a liaison between varying business units to guarantee smooth and timely delivery of software products or updates. - Gatekeeper
Holds the keys to production systems/applications and takes responsibility for their implementations. - Server Application Support Engineer
Help troubleshoot problems with an application (although not typically at a code level). - Coordinator
Utilised to coordinate disparate source trees, projects, teams and components.
Release managers continuously deal with: -
- Software Defects
- Issues
- Risks
- Software Change Requests
- New Development Requests (additional features and functions)
- Deployment and Packaging
- New Development Tasks
Due to the relationships between change, release and test management and the calibre of our testing professionals we are often called on to mobilise resources who can deliver in the capacity of either release or change manager.
To see how this service might help your organisation, please fill out our contact form or email info@sqa-consulting.com entering Release Management in the subject field.