About Approvals, Stage Gates, and Milestones

Release Approvals

Release approvals are intended for approval boards that need to approve a train at various phases. Release managers determine approval needs during the Scoping phase of a release train.

Release approvals are added and managed from release trains; the Approvals process app stores approvals and determines the approval process, however.

Up to four levels of approval can be required for these approval types:

Train approvals must be complete before scoping can begin. If approval is not required, the train proceeds directly to scoping.
Development approvals must be complete before trains can be sent to verification.
Executive approvals must be complete before trains can be deployed.

Train and development approvals are optional, but executive approval is required for each train. The release manager can enable overrides for each approval as needed.

Note: Approvals can be made by individual users, but not groups.

Exit Criteria for Stage Gates

Release managers can use stage gates to require individuals to approve a specific phase of a release train. Pre-defined stage gates are Scoping, Construction, and QA.

Exit criteria may be added to each stage gate. For example, the QA stage gate may have exit criteria for successful test automation runs.

If exit criteria is added to a stage gate, approval is required before the train can continue past that gate.

The release manager is responsible for creating exit criteria for each stage gate. Exit criteria owners are responsible for ensuring exit criteria are completed.

Use the Timeline view for release trains to monitor stage gates and exit criteria.

Note: Stage gates and exit criteria are added and managed from release trains; the Approvals process app stores these items and determines their process, however.

Milestones

Milestones are date-based activities against which progress can be measured. For example, you may create a milestone for completing drafts of technical documentation.

You can set completion dates and owners for each milestone. Milestone owners are responsible for completing or rejecting milestones.

Milestones can be added to a release train or each application release. If you have milestones that are common across multiple application releases, you can add them to release trains and choose to also add them to all applications on the train. This action automatically occurs once the release train is moved to the Construction phase.

Use the Timeline view for release trains and application releases to monitor milestone activities.