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Business Scenario for Release Manager

This scenario provides an example of a process flow performed by an applications administrator and managers and line employees in product marketing, engineering, QA, and technical publications. Your company may follow a different process flow according to its business requirements.

Siebel Administrator, Setup

Before the release cycle begins, the administrator sets up a master record for the release in the Siebel application. Then the administrator defines an access list of people who will be associated with the release. Afterward, the administrator designates the people on the access list for project teams that will be associated with various stages of the release. The administrator also sets up lists of values for picklist fields in the Release Manager views. Finally, the administrator sets up activity templates by which end users can associate lists of specific activities with certain stages of the release process.

Product Marketing

At the beginning of a release cycle, the Product Marketing group defines a set of release-defining features, requirements and enhancements for the products based on customer needs. After the detailed features list has been finalized and prioritized, Product Marketing enters the features into Release Manager as Feature records. If a feature is a complex one with multiple components, Product Marketing enters each component as a Feature record, then designates the main feature as its parent feature.

After the features for a release have been entered, Product Marketing writes Marketing Requirement Documents (MRDs) and enters them into Release Manager. Product Marketing creates a new record for each MRD or logical group of MRDs. After the MRD records have been created, Product Marketing links the MRD document files to their respective MRD records as attachments. Finally, Product Marketing links the MRDs to the features they reference.

Engineering

As Product Marketing defines release features, Engineering writes engineering tasks to implement those features in the product. Each engineering task is entered as an individual record in Release Manager. Each engineering task is linked to the features it is designed to implement. If a task is a complex one with multiple components, Engineering enters each component as a subtask record, then links it to the main engineering task.

Quality Assurance

As Product Marketing defines release features and Engineering implements them, Quality Assurance writes test plans to validate the features. Each completed test plan is entered as an individual record in Release Manager. Each test plan is linked to the features it is designed to validate.

Next, Quality Assurance creates test strategies, which are logical groupings of test plans. (For example, all test plans for one application module might be grouped together as a test strategy. Alternatively, all test plans to be executed on the same platform and browser combination might be grouped together as a test strategy.) Each completed test strategy is entered as an individual record in Release Manager. Each test strategy is linked to the test plans that it groups together.

After test strategies have been defined, Quality Assurance runs test plan executions, or test passes. Each test plan execution is logged as a test pass record. As the test passes are recorded, Quality Assurance links the test pass records to their respective test plans. Defects found during testing are recorded as change request records and linked to the test passes from which they were recorded.

During and after testing, Quality Assurance managers can run various reports on test pass results to monitor the health and progress of the product release effort.

Technical Publications

As the other teams design, implement, and test the release features, Technical Publications writes technical documents to describe the product and explain how to use it. Each technical document is entered as an individual record in Release Manager. Each technical document is linked to the features it describes. Technical Publications then links an activity plan with standard milestones and deadlines to each technical document record. After the technical document records have been created, Technical Publications links the technical document files to their respective records as attachments.

Siebel Administrator, Maintenance

While release work is ongoing, the administrator may need to do certain maintenance tasks to make sure Release Manager continues to run smoothly for end users. As Engineering completes builds of the product, the administrator adds product prototype records for Quality Assurance to record tests against. As product parameters change in the course of development, the administrator may need to add new Area and Subarea category combinations to add to Release Manager's lists of values. When a new release cycle begins, the release administrator determines the need for new and revised test plans and test strategies.


 Siebel Field Service Guide 
 Published: 21 April 2003