Overview of ITIL Release Management

ITIL defines a release as a collection of new and/or changed components that are tested and introduced into the live (production) environment together. The ITIL Release Management process helps to design and implement efficient procedures for the distribution and installation of changes. This process includes coordinating build and testing activities to help ensure that only the authorized and tested versions of changes are implemented in production. Ultimately, releasing a change requires the following actions:

  • Developing the change

  • Designing the change

  • Testing the change for functionality, quality, and performance

  • Pushing the change into production

ALM content bundle makes it easier for users to collect information for a release using a release form, which is submitted along a predefined release management process (see ALM - Release Request Workflow). After the initial release process steps have been completed, the release is created and the RFCs that are being processed along the ALM - Request For Change workflow (see ALM - Request For Change Workflow) can be added to the release in preparation for its deployment to the test and live environments. The release management process then moves through testing and deployment steps toward completion. ALM portlets can be added to a user's PPM Dashboard to monitor the status of releases. Additionally, reports can be run to obtain release summaries and scheduling details.

Use ALM entities discusses the PPM entities that ALM provides for use in the ITIL Release Management process, including the following:

  • Release Management request type, named ALM - Release Management

  • Associated Release Management workflow, named ALM - Release Request

  • Associated Release Management portlets

  • Associated Release Management reports

Release Management Roles

The following roles play an active part in the ITIL Release Management process:

  • Release Manager

  • Test Manager

  • Applications Development Manager

  • Operations Manager

  • Change Manager

  • CAB group (Change Advisory Board)

In addition to being valuable divisions of responsibility, these roles are used to designate user security for the default ALM - Release Request workflow (see ALM - Release Request Workflow).