Download Establish a Right-Sized Release and Deployment Management

V3.1
Establish a Right-Sized Release and
Deployment Management Process
Improve the speed and success rate of your deployments.
Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. Is a global leader in providing IT research and advice.
Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with
Info-Tech's products
and services
combine
actionable
insight
with ready-to-use tools
ready-to-use
tools and
templates
that cover
theand
full relevant
spectrumadvice
of IT concerns.
and templates that cover the full spectrum©of
IT concerns.©
1997Research
- 2014 Info-Tech
Research Group
1997-2014
Info-Tech
Group Inc.
Info-Tech Research Group
1
Introduction
A right-sized release and deployment management process will enable rapid
successful deployments of software into the production environment.
This Research Is Designed For:
This Research Will Help You:
 Infrastructure managers and release process
 Identify a right-sized release and deployment
owners who want to establish a formal release
and deployment management process.
 Infrastructure managers and release process
owners who want to re-evaluate their current
release and deployment process because of:
• Lack of clear hand-off between change and
release activities
• Deployments that require too much manual
effort
• High frequency of deployments
• Too many failed deployments, or
deployments that require re-work
• Low user satisfaction with deployments
management process
 Assess current state and identify critical gaps
 Track and measure process improvement
 Address process gaps by establishing and
documenting a right-sized release and
deployment process
 Deploy less frequently by bundling related
changes more effectively
 Ensure that deployments are more successful
through better release planning, designing,
building, and testing
 Develop a comprehensive release and
deployment management standard operating
procedure
Info-Tech Research Group
2
Executive Summary
• Software deployments frequently fail due to insufficient planning and testing of the release package. This results in
significant rework and can cause service-impacting incidents.
• Without a formal process in place to bundle related changes into release packages, deployments will be too frequent,
wasting resources, and posing a higher risk to the infrastructure.
• Automation of certain process steps is certainly a critical success factor, but a high level of investment is not always
necessary.
• While ITIL provides a good process framework, it is difficult to apply, and is more appropriate for large organizations who
frequently deploy major releases.
• ITIL does not provide tactical guidance regarding the integration of release and deployment management with change
management, and this cooperation is critical to release success.
• A good release and deployment process will be right-sized to organizational need, and applicable to both small releases
(one or several changes), and major releases (significant upgrades or new software).
• This project will assist in establishing such a process through completion of the following steps:
1. Define your target state: Given your release and deployment needs, what level of process automation and
investment should you aim for?
2. Perform a gap analysis: What is the magnitude of the gap between your current execution of release and
deployment management and your desired execution of release and deployment management.
3. Address gaps via process improvement: Document the right-sized process in a standard operating procedure
(SOP).
4. Create a roadmap: Develop an action plan for implementing the improved process to maximize value.
a. Prioritize action items with maximum value and minimum effort.
b. Use metrics to measure progress and success of process improvement.
Info-Tech Research Group
3
How to use this blueprint
Do-It-Yourself
Best-Practice
Toolkit
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
Use this Best-Practice Blueprint to
help you complete your project.
The slides in this Blueprint will walk
you step-by-step through every
phase of your project with
supporting tools and templates
ready for you to use. You can also
use this Best-Practice Blueprint to
facilitate your own project
accelerator workshop within your
organization using the workshop
slides and facilitation instructions
provided in the Appendix.
Free Guided
Implementation
We recommend that you
supplement the Best Practices
Toolkit with a Guided
Implementation.
Guided Implementations are
included in most advisory
membership seats. Our expert
analysts will provide telephone
assistance to you and your team at
key project milestones to review
your materials, answer your
questions, and explain our
methodology.
Onsite
Workshops
Info-Tech Research Group’s
expert analysts will come onsite to
help you work through our project
methodology in a 2-5 day project
accelerator workshop. We take
you through every phase of the
project and ensure that you have
a road map in place to complete
your project successfully. In some
cases, we can even complete the
project while we are onsite.
Enroll in a GI for your project.
Leverage each of the tools in this
blueprint to complete the
optimization of this project.
Email
[email protected]
Or call 1-888-670-8889 and ask for the
GI Coordinator.
Book your workshop now!
Email [email protected]
to get started.
Info-Tech Research Group
4
Guided Implementation points in the release and deployment
management project
Book a Guided Implementation Today: Info-Tech is just a phone call away and can assist you with your
project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion.
Here are the suggested Guided Implementation points in the release and deployment management project:
Section 2: Interpret and act on the results of the gap analysis
Get off to a productive start: Discuss your process pain points, review the Info-Tech release
and deployment process, and interpret the results of your Gap Analysis and Maturity
Assessment.
Section 3: Develop SOPs for planning and building releases
Address your gaps: Define roles and responsibilities, and discuss both integration with
change management and the planning phase of the release and deployment process.
Decide how you will use automation to design and build releases.
Section 4&5: Develop SOPs for testing and deploying releases
This symbol signifies
when you’ve reached a
Guided Implementation
point in your project.
Address your gaps: Discuss ways to improve your testing processes and achieve more
accurate test results and more successful deployments. Decide whether you should procure
software distribution tools to automate software deployments.
Section 6: Develop an action plan to fill your gaps and achieve your target state
Finalize a roadmap: Discuss an action plan for addressing all the gaps identified in Section 1
in order to achieve your target state and reach the highest level of process maturity. Discuss
common roadblocks to successful implementation and ways to resolve them.
To enroll, send an email to [email protected] or call 1-888-670-8889 and ask for
the Guided Implementation Coordinator.
Info-Tech Research Group
5
Make the Case
What’s in this Section:
• Release and deployment pain points
• Process value and overview
• How to use this blueprint
Sections:
Make the Case
Perform a Gap Analysis
Plan and Build Better Releases
Standardize a Right-Sized
Testing Process
Execute Sound Deployment
Build an Action Plan
Workshop
Info-Tech Research Group
6
Avoid the pains of poor release and deployment management
An ineffective release and deployment management process will lead to lost
productivity, disruptions to service, and slow deployments.
Deployments are too frequent
The need for frequent deployments
results in reduced availability of
critical business applications.
Deployments result in
service-impacting incidents
When new releases are deployed,
they create problems with related
systems or applications.
Deployments fail or
rework is required
Deployments are not successful and
have to be backed out and then reworked to resolve issues with the
installation.
Deployments require
too much manual effort
A lack of automation results in high
resource costs for deployments.
Human error is likely, which adds to
the risk of a failed deployment.
Info-Tech Research Group
7
Is the organization suffering from these pain points?
These pains will get worse as the number of applications, users, and servers
increases.
Don’t be a statistic
Average revenue cost of an unplanned
application outage is roughly US$2.8 million
dollars per hour.
59% of Fortune 500 companies experience a
minimum of 1.6 hours of downtime per
week.
Deployments can be difficult. There are too many
processes and we are in need of automation.
– Eric Renkey, Senior Director of IT, EQT Corporation
We only recognize dependencies after deployment.
Had one failed deployment last year- it is still 1 too
many!
– Dale Avis, CIO, Crawford and Company
80% of unplanned outages are due to illplanned changes made by administrators or
developers.
Businesses lose between $84,000 and
$108,000 (US) for every hour of IT system
downtime.
www.evolven.com/blog/costs-and-scope-of-unplanned-outages.html
Info-Tech Research Group
8
Case Study: Little mistakes creating big losses
Don’t cut corners – release validation and verification is a MUST.
•
Knight Capital reported a $440 million loss from a computer-trading glitch,
blaming software that was installed earlier in the week for causing the
brokerage firm to enter millions of faulty trades in less than an hour.
•
As a result of strict deadlines, the IT department was forced to cut corners
and failed to obtain adequate verification for the software deployment. The
problem was likely caused by poor software design or a lack of testing.
•
As IT systems and platforms become more complex, so do releases and
deployment. More dependencies arise, which calls for extensive and
rigorous testing. In the future, release management teams need to reduce
the risk of deployment and gain certainty.
•
“By assuring integrity in environments, providing visibility into the release
content and ensuring that the release is transitioned as expected, release
validation and verification software brings certainty to releases and reduces
the high-impact risks associated with them.”
(Source: Evolven, Little Mistake at Knight Capital Causes a $440 Million Trading Loss, 2013)
Info-Tech Research Group
9
Establish a right-sized release and deployment management
process to enable faster, better quality, and lower-cost releases
Achieve operational excellence by optimizing your planning, testing, and
automation practices.
Success criteria for release
and deployment management:
Planning
Operational
Excellence
 Speed
 Quality
Testing
Automation
 Cost
Faster
Higher Quality
Lower Cost
Info-Tech Research Group
10
Planning: Improve deployment time and efficiency
by optimizing the planning processes
Phased vs. big
bang
Full vs. package
releases
Bundle related
changes
Assess
dependencies
Planning
Faster
Bundle changes, faster
turnaround time
Better Quality
Avoid problems by understanding
dependencies
Lower Cost
Fewer deployments, less
rework
Info-Tech Research Group
11
Info-Tech Research Group Helps IT Professionals To:



Quickly get up to speed
with new technologies

Manage business expectations

Justify IT spending and
prove the value of IT

Train IT staff and effectively
manage an IT department
Make the right technology
purchasing decisions – fast
Deliver critical IT
projects, on time and
within budget
Sign up for free trial membership to get practical
solutions for your IT challenges
“Info-Tech helps me to be proactive instead of reactive –
a cardinal rule in a stable and leading edge IT environment.
•
- ARCS Commercial Mortgage Co., LP
Toll Free: 1-888-670-8889
www.infotech.com
Info-Tech Research Group
12