The role of release management in the development of any software package has drastically changed with the introduction of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).

Release Cycles before CI/CD

In the past, most of the software houses had unidirectional release cycle that comprised of five components:

Research
Plan
Development
Test
Release

These are the usual steps of any release cycle. In general the development and testing phases of the cycle are lengthy as compared to the other phases. However, there is no proper feedback mechanism in the old release cycles.

Then Comes CI/CD

The overall framework of release cycle has changed with the introduction of CI/CD practices. Both of these protocols are related to the development phase of the cycle and are practiced to make the process more rapid, responsive and adaptive.

Continuous Integration

Continuous integration is the practice by which developers are required to integrate the developed codes into a common software repository. That repository receives multiple entries every day, each of which is verified and checked through an automated build. This routine helps teams with quick and early detection and location of any issue with the coding.

Several benefits of continuous integration are:

Teams spend less time in debugging the coding problems.
System integration becomes convenient.
Developers don’t have to wait to check the viability of their coding.

Continuous Delivery

The practices of continuous integration are extended to continuous delivery, the process through which release managers ensure that every bit of alteration in the system or package are releasable at any point in the cycle. Continuous delivery helps large software organizations streamline their releases with more adaptability per feedback, changed strategy and market trends. In making release cycles more agile and smooth, modern release management plays a decisive role.

Continuous Deployment

Continuous deployment follows the continuous delivery methodology, in that every change and patch that goes through agile testing automatically gets deployed to the production. Continuous deployment reduces the lead time which results in quicker ROIs and feedbacks. Organizations not burdened by unnecessary regulations can make the most of continuous deployment.

Release Managers’ Role in the Era of CI/CD

As with the incorporation of CI/CD in the development and release of any software package, release cycles have become continual. This has brought about a significant shift in release managers’ responsibilities, including those discussed here.

Shift from Linear Phase to Operations

In the past, release managers usually would supervise the linear phases (planning, development and testing) that culminate into a final release. Now, with the advent of CI/CD, release managers are responsible for taking care of the operational side of things. For instance, a modern release manager has to ensure a smooth flow of continuous integration of codes to the production team.

More Fronts to Deal With

Modern release managers are no longer limited to development and quality assurance. They have to deal on several fronts. Because of continuous delivery, speed is now associated with releases. Hence, release managers are required to deal with sales and support, management/marketing, and customer feedback to ensure the required changes in the next release.

Modern Release Manager as a QA Manager

Before the new paradigm of CI/CD, release managers solely relied upon the reports from the quality assurance (QA) manager to determine and access the release quality. With more automation involved in software development, the tasks of QA managers have shifted to release managers. With the help of layered test automation suites, a release manager now has to assure the quality of release from development to production.

Release Management Ensures Swift Decision-Making

In the past, a whole board of decision makers would decide whether to release the software product, or not. But with fast and never-ending cycle of releases, this collective decision-making was lagging in the process of a release. Therefore, release managers are now required to come up with decisive final report, which enables even a single stakeholder to call the shots.

Complete Understanding of CI/CD Pipelines and Other Related Technical Aspects

Release managers today must have comprehensive knowledge of CI/CD protocols and DevOps auto deployment tools. They must understand how the CI/CD pipeline, which is central to the quick release cycle, works, and be able to identify defects early. In addition, release managers must understand:

Feature Toggles: A unique prevailing tool that enables developers to amend system behavior without altering the code, to help expedite the release cycle.
Branch Handling: Used for parallel development of different patches of software.

CI/CD is still in its nascent phase and therefore faces the issues of lack of management and infrastructure. Due to these shortcomings, Some naysayers also question its viability. It becomes, then, a shared responsibility between all departments—including release management—to address the concerns and meet the challenges in a better way.

In this backdrop, below are some important points integral to the release management role.

Quality of release must not suffer for the sake of agility.
An appropriate change notification system must be implemented so every stakeholder can know which patch is about to release and when.
With release becoming more of a continuous progress rather than an event, it is important for release management to make sure that the power of decision-making resides with small, independent release teams to have smooth deployment process.

Apart from the explicit responsibilities of release management discussed above, they must have the requisite interpersonal skill set to implement and steer the changes in the work culture, as well as structure the hierarchy of the team. Furthermore, they should have a thorough grasp of the tools and processes that are necessary in the CI/CD integrated working environment.

There is no doubt that the job of release manager has become more demanding with the introduction of CI/CD. But on the bright side, release management has become the linchpin of any software release that is developed in the environment of CI/CD.

— Subramonian