The tribe largely operates in an ad-hoc manner, with releases often being painful, unpredictable or unplanned.
Tribes often face unforeseen challenges during the release, with occurrence of post-release defects, leading to frequent rollbacks, hotfixes, or emergency patches.
The tribe’s approach to releases is reactive rather than proactive.
There's no clear ownership or responsibility for the release process.
The tribe has established some repeatable, and documented release processes, and there's a designated team or individual responsible for managing releases.
While there's a defined schedule, unplanned releases still occur to address critical issues.
All open issues are investigated and assigned Severities and Priorities before any release.
The release process is well-documented based on the existing requirements and templates provided by the Delivery Chapterand consistently followed.
Alignment with Organisational Change Procedures: Ensures the release process adheres to established organizational protocols for managing changes, maintaining consistency and strategic alignment.
Releases occur at regular intervals and rarely deviate from the schedule.
Automation is employed for most release tasks, reducing manual errors.
Feedback loops are in place, ensuring lessons from past releases are incorporated.
The tribe employs techniques like feature flags for smoother rollouts.
Automated rollback mechanisms and disaster recovery processes are in place and constantly validated, ensuring swift recovery in case of issues.
Stakeholders are regularly informed about upcoming releases, and there's a structured feedback loop post-release.
Deployments are semi-automated and may still require manual oversight.
Every release undergoes a rigorous and evidence-based validation process, including guided User Acceptance Testing (UAT), ensuring high-quality and reliable performance.
End-to-End Evidence-Based Approach: each release cycle, from requirements to delivery, is thoroughly evidence-driven.
Releases are well documented, providing clear documentation, and usage guidelines for the end users.
There are clear practices for identifying and managing risks during the release process.
Alignment with Organizational Objectives: How does our release management process align with the broader organizational goals and objectives? Are we effectively balancing speed, quality, and functionality in our releases?
Validation Effectiveness: To what extent are our release management processes automated, and how efficient are they in reducing manual errors and accelerating delivery times?
Risk Management: How do we identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with each release?
Stakeholder Communication: How effectively do we communicate with stakeholders (including clients, team members, and management) throughout the release process?
Process Efficiency: How do we measure the success of our release management process, and what mechanisms do we have in place for continuous improvement and learning from past releases?
Process Evaluation: What key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics do we use to assess the effectiveness of our release management? How do we measure the impact of our release management practices on overall software quality and business outcomes?
Adaptability to Change: How adaptable and resilient are our release management practices in the face of changing requirements, emerging technologies, and unexpected challenges?
Quality Assurance: How do we systematically track and ensure that each functionality, from its initial requirement through development, testing, and deployment, is effectively aligned with and fulfills the intended business objectives and user needs, and what mechanisms are in place to review and learn from each delivery cycle?