Typical Release Manager Flow

This section describes the standard successful flow for most release trains. The steps in this section assume that Release Manager has been installed and configured, and that release artifacts have been created using the steps in Creating Release Artifacts.

Release train is created.
- Release type, manager, purpose, and proposed scheduled are set.
- Approvals are defined (train, development, and executive).
- Environments are reserved for the train.
- Exit criteria are defined for stage gates.
- Milestones that apply to all application releases are added to the release train.
- Exit criteria set for the scoping stage gate is verified.
Scoping may be considered complete at this point. The release train may require approval at this stage gate to move to the construction phase.

Tip: To simplify the process of creating release trains, you can create templates that include most release artifacts. Refer to Creating Release Train Templates.
Application releases are created and associated with the release train.
- An application is specified for each application release.
- The schedule is set for each application release.
- Dependencies on other application releases are noted.
- Milestones are added to each application release. Common milestones may also be inherited from a release train.
- Business requests, development tasks, and other work items are associated with the application release.
Construction on application releases is completed.
- Status is monitored through the release train and application release timelines.
- Turnovers can be created for each application release that are being executed. Typically, these turnovers are deployed to staging or testing environments. Successful turnovers can be promoted to different environments.
- Completed development tasks and business requests are associated with each turnover.
- Deployment tasks are added to each turnover.
- Exit criteria set for the development stage gate is verified.
Development may be considered complete at this point. The release train may require approval at this stage gate to the verification phase.
Release train is verified and approved.
- Exit criteria for the QA stage gate is verified.
- If approved by the release engineer, the release train is sent for executive approval.
Production turnover is created for the release train.
- Turnover is created and deployment is scheduled for all application releases on the train.
- Deployment tasks can be copied from pre-production turnovers, then modified and reordered as needed.
Production turnover is delivered to release engineering team for acceptance.
- Release engineer reviews and accepts turnover.
Turnover is deployed on its scheduled date.
- Manual and automated deployment tasks are automatically created.
- Deployment tasks are completed in the sequence specified in the turnover.
Release train is completed.
- Once production deployment is verified, the release train is closed by the release manager or a release engineer.