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# Define release process stages

After you create a release process, you define its stages.

Note: Access to the release process settings depends on permissions granted to your user role. For details, see Roles and permissions.

In this topic:

## Define stages

Stages are the main component of a release process. An example of a stage is: `Prepare test environments`.

A stage can contain manual actions, automated actions, and quality gates. Within a stage, you can organize actions and quality gates into groups, to group the actions by category or requirement.

To define a stage:

1. Open a release process and select the Process Flow tab.

2. Click + Stage to create a stage.

3. In the Add Stage dialog box, enter a name for your stage and define other fields.

   Use the Run children in parallel field to determine whether the stage's child items can be executed at the same time. For details, see Parallel and sequential stages.

4. Click Add.

   Tip: To create a group within the stage, click Add & Edit. The stage you created opens, and you can click + Group to create a group within the stage.

After creating a stage, you define actions and quality gates that make up the stage. For details, see Define actions.

### Parallel and sequential stages

Stages, as well as groups, can be defined as parallel or sequential. This defines whether the items in the stage or group are run at the same time, or in sequence.

Status | Details
--- | ---
Parallel | All child items are run at the same time.
Sequential | An item starts after the preceding item has completed.

## Define actions

You can define manual or auto actions for the stages of your release process.

To define an action:

1. Open a release process and select the Process Flow tab.

2. Select the stage to which you want to add an action.

3. Expand the + Stage list and select Manual Action or Auto Action.

4. In the dialog box, enter a name for your action and define other fields.

5. For auto actions, select the action type and define the related fields. For details, see Auto actions.

   Tip:

   - You can use variables to include automatically generated property values in subsequent auto actions, such as emails and document reports.

   - In text fields, you can include a parameter to display a reference field of a related entity.

   For details, see Release process variables.

6. Click Add. The action is added to the stage.

7. If necessary, reorder the items in the release process tree. To reorder an item, drag it up or down within the tree. You cannot drag an item above an item that has already started. After you move the item, the timings of the surrounding items are automatically adjusted.

## Define quality gates

Use quality gates to verify that certain criteria are met before moving to the next stage. For a quality gate to pass, all its criteria need to be marked as Passed.

When the quality gate is processed, the system automatically runs the quality gate’s query. If the query's condition is met, the Gate status field is set to Passed. If the condition is not met, Gate status is set to Failed.

Quality gate criteria can be a combination of the different criterion types.

Criterion type | Description
--- | ---
Query criterion | A criterion based on a threshold value and operator. You define a rule that checks whether the values generated by the preceding steps met your condition.
Dependency criterion | A criterion based on the completion of a prior release process item, such as a different group within a stage.
User input criterion | A criterion that is a subjective assessment or requires a complex decision that cannot be effectively automated.

To define a quality gate:

1. Open a release process and click the Process Flow tab.
2. Click + Quality Gate. If this option is not visible, expand the item list and select Quality Gate.
3. In the Add Quality Gate window, enter a name for the quality gate and define other fields.
4. Click Add & Edit to create the quality gate. The quality gate opens so you can add criteria.

5. In the toolbar, click to add a criterion. If you do not see the option you want, click the arrow to expand the dropdown list.

   - + Query Criterion: For details, see Define a query criterion.

   - + User Input Criterion: For details, see Define a dependency criterion.

   - + Dependency Criterion: For details, see Define a user input criterion.

   Note: The number of criteria that you can define in a quality gate is controlled by the RC_CRITERIA_PER_GATE parameter. For details, see Configuration parameters.

## Define a query criterion

Define a query criterion for a quality gate. For example, you can set a criterion Defects=0 to ensure that there are no remaining defects, with a filter for very high or critical defects: Severity={Very High, Critical}.

To add a query criterion:

1. Click + Query Criterion.

2. In the Add Query Criterion dialog box, provide the following details.

   Field | Description
   --- | ---
   Item type | Select the item type on which the query runs. You can reduce the scope of items by defining a filter. Possible values: Backlog Items, Defects, Last Test Runs.
   Threshold operator/ Threshold value | Define a numerical condition. If the condition is met, the criterion passes.
   Filter | Set a filter to define the subset of items that the system compares with the threshold condition. If you want the query to match the release defined for the release process, select Linked Processes, click the cross-filter button , and select Releases. For the value, select Release Process.Releases and click OK. If you want the query to match the milestone defined for the release process, select Linked Processes, click the cross-filter button , and select Milestones. For the value, select Release Process.Milestones and click OK. Setting these values lets you define the release and milestone for all the query criteria in one place, on the Details tab of a release process. For details on setting filters, see Filters.

You can run a simulation of a query to see how many items the query returns, and see whether the query would pass or fail the criterion.

To simulate query criteria results:

1. In the Criteria tab of the quality gate, select the criterion that you want to simulate.

2. Click the Preview button to open the Preview pane.

3. In the Preview pane, click Simulate Results.

4. After the simulation is completed, the Preview displays a simulated result indicating whether the criterion would pass or fail given the current situation.

5. Click the results link to list the items that the query returned.

Note:

- You can only simulate query criteria of quality gates that are in the Planned phase.
- The simulation reflects the current situation. The results of the actual quality gate evaluation may be different.

## Define a dependency criterion

Add a dependency criterion for a quality gate. Dependency criteria are based on the completion of a prior release process item, such as a different group within a stage.

The following are sample use cases for dependency criteria:

- Sample use case 1: My process is dependent on another process. I don’t want a certain part of my process to start until the other process is complete. I add a quality gate with a dependency criterion at the appropriate point and choose the other process as a dependency.

- Sample use case 2: In my process, I have two sequential groups running in parallel. They are generally independent, but there is one specific auto action in the first group, Action A, that depends on an auto action in the second group, Action B. I add a quality gate with a dependency criterion before Action A to make sure Action B is completed.

To add a dependency criterion:

1. In the Criteria tab of the quality gate, click + Dependency Criterion.

2. In the Add Dependency Criterion dialog box, provide the following details.

   Field | Description
   --- | ---
   Item type | Select the item type on which the query runs. Possible values: Release Process Items, Release Processes.
   Dependencies | Select a release process or a release process item in the current process, whose completion is included in the criterion. For release process items, expand the nodes of the release process and select the relevant items.

3. Click OK.

## Define a user input criterion

Add a user input criterion for a quality gate. Use this type of criterion if the condition to pass the quality gate is a subjective assessment or if it requires a complex decision that cannot be automated. The owner of the release process manually marks the criterion as passed or failed.

Possible use cases for choosing the user input criterion option are:

- Environmental impact assessment

- Legal and regulatory compliance review

To add a user input criterion:

1. In the Criteria tab of the quality gate, click + User Input Criterion.
2. In the Add User Input Criterion dialog box, enter a name for the criterion.
3. In the Description field, enter a textual description of a condition for passing the quality gate – for example: "Has the feature passed regulatory compliance review?"

4. Click Add.

5. In the release process run, manually choose a Gate status: Passed or Failed.

## Next steps

- Release process flow
- Run a release process
- View process timelines
- Auto actions
- Release process variables

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