Skip to main content

VOI and ROI of Release and Deployment Management

Image
By
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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Four Service Characteristics

By
Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.”  Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

By
This article was originally published in 2015. With the Introduction of ITIL 4, some of the concepts have changed in ways that are described below. ITIL 4 has also introduced new roles, as explained in our blog ITIL 4 and the Evolving Role of Roles . Before we dive into the difference between these roles, let’s first look at a key update in ITIL 4 – the shift from processes to practices. ITIL 4 has evolved to focus on holistic practices vs. isolated processes. By definition, a practice is a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. For example, the purpose of the incident management practice is to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. All organizations recognize the need to allocate resources to the management of incidents and mature their capabilities in that area. In ITIL 4, each practice includes resources based on the four ...
1 comment
Read more

What Is A Service Offering?

By
The ITIL 4 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 1. 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.      ...
Post a Comment
Read more