VOI and ROI of Release and Deployment Management

I was recently asked about the ROI and VOI of Release and Deployment Management.

Let me start by acknowledging that there is a lot of confusion about the difference between Release and Deployment Management and Change Management. Change Management is a risk management, governance process. Release Management is more actionable – it is about bringing one or more changes to life through defined pre and post production activities.

You could almost call it the DevOps process.

The growing requirement for rapid (some would say continuous) deployment does not undermine the need for quality releases. In fact, a structured approach to rapid deployment is more critical than ever since there is less time to flush out errors. You can make the process more agile by building release models for different types of releases. The models can match the rigor associated with building, testing, implementation testing and deployment with the complexity, risk, business need and impact of what is being released. The model will also address the need (or lack thereof) for documentation, early life support, user preparedness and communication.

Essentially, an individual release model will pre-define what needs to be done by both Dev and Ops for this specific type of release. As time goes by, the models may be a critical success factor in instilling an agile DevOps culture into your environment. Release and Deployment management is not bureaucratic by design – so go ahead and build some different models for common types of releases and test them out.

Here’s the VOI and ROI - failed changes and releases are very expensive and in some environments the damage could impact human life, market perception and/or loss of customers. With just about everything moving online – whether via the cloud or through traditional web services – the need to be able to “drop code” multiple times a day will continue to increase. Dev and Ops will need to cross the cultural divide, perhaps using release models as the bridge. Someday, this process may be as significant to DevOps as Incident Management is to the Service Desk.

Comments

The Four Ps of Service Design - It’s not all about Technology

People ask me why I think that many designs and projects often fail. The most common answer is from a lack of preparation and management. Many IT organizations just think about the technology (product) implementation and fail to understand the risks of not planning for the effective and efficient use of the four Ps: People, Process, Products (services, technology and tools) and Partners (suppliers, manufacturers and vendors). A holistic approach should be adopted for all Service Design aspects and areas to ensure consistency and integration within all activities and processes across the entire IT environment, providing end to end business-related functionality and quality. (SD 2.4.2) People: Have to have proper skills and possess the necessary competencies in order to get involved in the provision of IT services. The right skills, the right knowledge, the right level of experience must be kept current and aligned to the business needs. Products: These are the technology managem

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group . As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. Note: Goods may not always be provided for every Service Offe

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

I was recently asked to clarify the roles of the Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner and wanted to share this with you. Roles and Responsibilities: Process Owner – this individual is “Accountable” for the process. They are the goto person and represent this process across the entire organization. They will ensure that the process is clearly defined, designed and documented. They will ensure that the process has a set of Policies for governance. Example: The process owner for Incident management will ensure that all of the activities to Identify, Record, Categorize, Investigate, … all the way to closing the incident are defined and documented with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, handoffs, and deliverables. An example of a policy in could be… “All Incidents must be logged”. Policies are rules that govern the process. Process Owner ensures that all Process activities, (what to do), Procedures (details on how to perform the activity) and the

Search