Why You Need A Release Strategy

Without a formal release strategy, your organization may struggle with the following cloud activities:

☒  Adoption of new functionality.
☒  Maintainence of existing processes.
☒  Socializing required changes.
☒  Sharing progress during release windows.

However, once a release strategy has been established you can expect the following benefits:

☑  Increased awareness regarding new functionality and required changes.
☑  Increased confidence in testing results.
☑  Improved collaboration across teams and with customers.
☑  Ability to review and share progress across all levels of the organization.

By following the steps below, you can improve your feature release strategy, customer engagement, and return on investment.

1. Develop a Blueprint

Ensure that your cloud application team has a detailed plan for each major feature release. This blueprint should include the review of new functionality, testing, environment upgrade milestones, deployment of production changes, and many other considerations.

Here are a few actions you can take to build out your plan:

1.   Identify Release Milestones
2.   Create a Release Blueprint Template
3.   Review Published Release Documents
4.   Draft an Engagement Strategy
5.   Build a Repository for Release Materials

By developing a blueprint and consistent process, you will help your team report out status more efficiently, improve future release activities with lessons learned, and build confidence with stakeholders.
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Collaborating with all parties involved is crucial for building an effective release management plan.

2. Formalize Feature Reviews

Carve out dedicated time for your team to review new features and functionality. After the cloud application team is comfortable with upcoming changes, they should move on to conducting feature review sessions with your customers and stakeholders.

Here are a few actions you can take to formalize feature reviews:

1.   Establish Feature Review Sessions
2.   Review Business Goals and Metrics
3.   Prepare Agenda and Release Materials
4.   Capture Decisions Effectively

By formalizing feature reviews the cloud application team will engage with stakeholders and tap into their business needs, identify gaps in current functionality, and strengthen your organization's brand.
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The cloud application team should engage with customers directly to identify potential impacts and proactively address any concerns.

3. Maintain a Detailed Backlog

Provide balance and ensure your cloud application teams are not falling behind with a detailed backlog. Plan to track the importance, timing, and level-of-effort for changes associated with each release.

Here are a few actions you can take to ensure your backlog is ready:

1.   Establish Backlog Review Sessions
2.   Review Business Decisions Regularly
3.   Add Placeholders for New Functionality
4.   Regularly Socialize Changes

By keeping a well-maintained backlog, your cloud application team will immediately have prioritized tasks, be able to negotiate trade-offs when at capacity, and mitigate requests for bolt-on solutions.
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Cloud providers deliver numerous upgrades, but your customers may fear business disruption or not be ready for this level of change.

4. Establish Rolling Roadmaps

Your organization should have one or more roadmaps that easily highlight feature release windows, significant business milestones, and mission critical projects. After understanding what changes are coming and how they solve your customers' business needs, you should be ready to maintain your roadmaps.

Here are a few actions you can take to keep your roadmaps relevant:

1.   Establish a Cadence for Roadmap Reviews
2.   Capture Key Projects, Processes, and Milestones
3.   Review Decisions, Team Capacity, and Backlog
4.   Share Updated Roadmaps Frequently

By establishing rolling roadmaps and leveraging a collaborative approach to update them, you will raise awareness, create richer conversations regarding adoption, and promote overall alignment with business needs.
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Include your cloud administrators and business users in roadmap conversations to leverage their insights.

5. Formalize Change Management

Your business owners and support teams undoubtedly rely on a firm understanding of how your cloud applications work. Without this knowledge, they are unable to fully consult on processes and deliver results. Sharing what is changing and when is imperative for any successful cloud team.

Here are a few actions you can take to formalize change across your organization:

1.   Establish a Change Network
2.   Embrace Sharing Documentation
3.   Conduct Training on New Features and Functionality
4.   Build Feedback Loops

By establishing a formal change management strategy with your stakeholders, you help to ensure the success of major feature releases. The more your customers and stakeholders understand changes and their impact on their business processes, the more willing they will be to promote the adoption of new features.
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Regularly revisit changes to simplify the management of future improvements and ensures that all levels of support are aligned.

By implementing any of these actions, you can quickly improve your feature release strategy, keep your customers engaged, and maximize your return on investment.

For help on how to activate these changes for your organization, please reach out via LinkedIn, X, or email. Subscribe to our site and newsletter to receive more recommendations on other topics relevant to cloud executives and high-performing teams.