Release Management

Release and Deployment Management is a process identified by ITIL framework. It is a part of Service Transition life cycle. The purpose is "to build, test and deliver the capability to provide the services specified by Service Design[...]."

Release Management definition:

The Process responsible for Planning, scheduling and controlling the movement of Releases to Test and Live Environments. The primary Objective of Release Management is to ensure that the integrity of the Live Environment is protected and that the correct Components are released. Release Management is part of the Release and Deployment Management Process.

Also see Deployment.

References:

• Software release management best practices (link)
• ITIL V3 Glossary (link)
• Agile Estimating and Planning, Chapter 13 - Release Planning Essentials

Environments

The types of environments, both logical and physical, required during release and deployment include:

• Build environments
• Unit test environment
• Assembly test environment
• Integration environment
• System test environment
• Service release test environment
• Service Operations readiness test environments
• Business simulation environments
• Service Management simulation environments
• Training environments
• Pilot environments, including conference room pilots
• Backup and recovery environments, e.g. disaster recovery

Reference: ITIL v3, Service Transition, p.93

Also see Environments page.

Best Practices

Some of the best practices for Release Management include the following components:

• Release Schedule / Calendar
• Release Identification (points to the CIs that it represents and a version number)