Release management can be difficult and cause real issues if you are not ready to support it. Check out these 7 common challenges to release management and learn how to combat them!

1. 7 Not-So-Obvious
Challenges of
Release
Management
@rodanz ; @mattnollman

2. Demand for Services
is High
The core function of IT is to serve and
support the business, so the services that IT
is providing must be customer focused.
Alignment between IT and line of business is
required throughout all the processes.
1

3. IT is Complicated!
Face it – today’s IT
environments are
heterogeneous. They are
comprised of many
different environments
that often are not fully
integrated. DevOps tools
need to address this
complexity head-on.
2

4. The ability to easily assess and make changes to
your IT infrastructure is necessary, but often is hard
to establish. IT is always battling with compliance
issues, reporting, and monitoring at all levels.
IT Drives You
Mad!3

5. Large modifications and updates to
applications are risky. Therefore, small
iterative batches of incremental changes
should be preferred. When you deploy an
application with small incremental
changes, you create a more stable
application deployment regime.
Small Steps or a Big Jump4

6. Strive for the same
environments at all stages
of deployment. Use the
same process across all
teams and target
environments. This helps
with alignment throughout
deployment.
Similarity is a Good Thing!5

7. Use the sandbox, fail fast, and
recover faster. Rollbacks are
essential for reverting to a
stable state. But be sure to
maintain dependencies
between your builds/versions.
6 There Shall be
Errors!

8. Automation is your friend.
There is no need to have your
hands in every aspect of the
deployment process. Use
automation to your advantage
and make deployment easier,
faster and less prone to
human errors.
Befriend Automation7

9. To fight these challenges:
1. Check out these best practices for application
release automation.
2. Try taking the DevOps Bull by the Horns.
3. Or read the DevOps Best Practices White Paper!