The Art of Release Management: A 3-Step Guide to Avoiding Catastrophes

Releasing new features to your audience can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to ensuring a smooth and successful deployment.

What is Release Management?

Release management is the process of defining how often to make your product available to your audience. It’s a critical consideration for any team, as it directly impacts the success of your product.

Modern companies like to release frequently, sometimes multiple times a day, to ensure they’re always providing the best possible experience for their users.

The Traditional Release Management Process

The traditional release management process typically involves the following stages:

• Planning
• Scheduling
• Controlling
• Testing
• Deployment
• Managing

While each stage is important, we’ll focus on the common problems and antipatterns that teams face when releasing changes.

Common Problems and Antipatterns

When releasing software, teams often encounter unforeseen problems that require intensive work to solve. Some common antipatterns include:

• Rollback plans that are difficult to implement
• Test plans that are exhaustive and time-consuming
• All-or-nothing deployments that impact the entire user base
• Deployment engineers who are solely responsible for pushing the “release” button
• Multiple levels of staging before releasing to production

A 3-Step Process for Successful Release Management

To avoid these common problems and antipatterns, we recommend the following 3-step process:

Step 1: Limit the Blast Radius

Limiting the blast radius means reducing the number of users who are affected by a new feature or change. This can be done by:

release_to_limited_audience() {
  # Release to 1% of the total user base
  release_percentage=1
  user_base=$(get_user_base)
  limited_audience=$((user_base * release_percentage / 100))
  release_to_users $limited_audience
}

By limiting the blast radius, you can test your ideas quickly and safely, without exposing your entire audience to potential issues.

Step 2: Release Quickly

Releasing quickly means getting your software into the hands of users as soon as possible. This allows you to:

• Learn from your audience and gather feedback
• Iterate and improve your product rapidly

release_quickly() {
  # Automate testing and deployment
  automate_testing
  automate_deployment
  # Get feedback from users
  get_feedback
  # Iterate and improve
  iterate_and_improve
}

Product-led companies often release multiple times a day, while outdated companies may only release once a month.

Step 3: Measure Results

Measuring results means understanding whether your new feature or change is creating value for your users. This can be done by:

measure_results() {
  # Use segmented tests (A/B tests) to compare results
  use_segmented_tests
  # Gather feedback from users
  gather_feedback
  # Iterate and improve
  iterate_and_improve
}

By measuring results, you can ensure that you’re creating value for your users and making informed decisions about your product.

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