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Scenarios for Using Release Manager

This topic describes how Release Manager might be used. You might use Release Manager differently, depending on your business model. This topic includes the following scenarios:

• Managing Administrator Work
• Managing Product Marketing Work
• Managing Engineering Work
• Managing Quality Assurance Work
• Managing Technical Publications Work

Managing Administrator Work

Before the release cycle begins, the administrator sets up a master record for the release. Then the administrator defines an access list of employees who are associated with the release. Then the administrator designates the employees on the access list for project teams that are associated with various stages of the release. The administrator also sets up Lists of Values (LOVs) for fields with drop-down lists in the Release Manager views. Finally, the administrator sets up activity templates. Users can use these templates to associate lists of specific activities with certain stages of the release process.

During release work, the administrator might have to perform certain maintenance tasks to make sure Release Manager continues to run smoothly for users. After Engineering completes product builds, the administrator adds product prototype records. Quality Assurance records tests for these records. When product parameters change in the course of development, the administrator might have to add new Area-Subarea combinations to add to the LOVs for Release Manager. When a new release cycle begins, the release administrator determines the need for new and revised test plans and test strategies.

Managing Product Marketing Work

At the beginning of a release cycle, Product Marketing defines a set of release-defining features, which are product requirements and enhancements that are based on customer needs. After prioritizing and finalizing the detailed features list, Product Marketing enters the features into Release Manager as feature records. If a feature is complex with multiple components, then Product Marketing enters each component as a feature record, and then designates the main feature as its parent feature.

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

Managing Engineering Work

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

Managing Quality Assurance Work

After Product Marketing defines release features and Engineering implements the features, Quality Assurance writes test plans to validate the features. QA enters each completed test plan as an individual record in Release Manager, and links each test plan to the features it is designed to validate.

Next, Quality Assurance creates test strategies, which are logical groupings of test plans. (For example, Quality Assurance might group together all test plans for an application module as a test strategy. Alternatively, Quality Assurance might group together all test plans to execute on the same platform and browser combination as a test strategy.) QA enters each completed test strategy as an individual record in Release Manager, and links each test strategy to the test plans that it groups together.

After defining test strategies, Quality Assurance runs test plan executions, or test passes. QA logs each test plan execution as a test pass record. When recording the test passes, Quality Assurance links the test pass records to respective test plans. QA records the defects found during testing as change request records and links the records to the associated test passes.

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

Managing Technical Publications Work

When 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. Technical Publications enters each technical document as an individual record in Release Manager, and links each technical document to the features it describes. Technical Publications then links an activity plan with standard milestones and deadlines to each technical document record. After creating the technical document records, Technical Publications links the technical document files to respective records as attachments.