Using No-Code to Optimize Release Management

Release management can improve the development and deployment of your application. With no-code, the release management process is easier than ever.

What does it take to successfully deploy an enterprise web application? You might think it’s as simple as pushing the application live, but releasing an application actually requires a huge amount of work behind the scenes. 

That’s where release management comes in. Release management is a relatively new discipline in software development, but the need for it has grown due to how expansive and complex the field has become. An effective release management strategy can help your team bring the best version of your application to market.

What is release management?

Release management is the process of overseeing the development, testing, and deployment of new software. It combines the general business principles behind project management—namely time and value—and combines them with an intimate knowledge of the software development lifecycle and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices. 

A release management team is primarily concerned with managing and monitoring how changes flow through the pre-production environment, ensuring all necessary changes go through without disrupting the IT environment. Release management processes are individual to each enterprise, but the core processes can be broken down into five steps.

1. Planning: Release managers set timelines and due dates, outline requirements, and reaffirm the overall scope of the project. Creating detailed release management plans helps team members stay on track and meet pre-established requirements in a timely fashion.
2. Building: Once release plans have been finalized, the release management team designs and executes the build. This often takes several iterations and requires input from many different departments.
3. User testing: This is a fluid and iterative process, much like the application build itself. As feedback flows in from end-users and more issues are identified, the release management team takes the build back to the drawing board and improves the application before final implementation.  
4. Preparation: The release management team puts the final touches on the application and sends it to the QA team for final review. The QA team will check to make sure the application meets the standards and business requirements that were outlined in the release plan. If it does, the application is cleared for takeoff.
5. Deployment: In addition to pushing the application live, the release management team also provides education to end-users and continuously keeps track of changes to make sure the application stays up to date

This five-step process outlines the basic steps of release management, but it is not all-encompassing. There are tons of other key release management tasks including supervising deployment speed, ensuring compliance, maintaining product stability, delivering new features to customers, and so much more.

Release management pain points

The two biggest pain points are a lack of visibility into the development process and the constant pressure for faster builds. 

With so many moving parts, it’s no surprise that numerous enterprises struggle with release management. The two biggest pain points are a lack of visibility into the development process and the constant pressure for faster builds. 

A release manager is responsible for keeping track of all parts of the development process. They must collaborate with business and tech teams to ensure every release has the right features, implement changes to the release scope based on information from project managers, and schedule builds so they don’t overwhelm each team’s workload. With all this data getting passed around, it’s easy for something to fall through the cracks. As team members chip away at their individual duties, it’s also common for operations to break down into silos that inhibit communication and collaboration.

As communication breaks down, it becomes harder to complete tasks as efficiently as possible. Thanks to the overabundance of web applications these days, enterprises are facing more pressure than ever before to deliver software at faster and faster speeds. When you’re working with traditional application development methods, it’s nearly impossible to build applications quickly without sacrificing quality, security, or functionality.

Revamp release management with Unqork 

Building applications on a no-code platform like Unqork can help eliminate these pain points and optimize release management, which helps you get better products to market faster. Unqork’s intuitive, user-friendly visual platform makes application development more collaborative because more people can get involved, no matter their skillset. All changes can be reflected automatically within the platform, so release managers no longer have to question who made what changes when. This streamlines the build process and facilitates full transparency among team members. 

This webinar showcases Unqork’s release management and service logs capabilities.

No-code also enables you to build applications from scratch faster than ever—with Unqork, you can build a fully functional application in a matter of days instead of months or years. Enterprise-grade APIs promote faster communication and implementation throughout the release management process. Along with expediting building time, no-code platforms are designed to improve the safety of your application. Unqork’s no-code platform is built with enterprise-grade security features, including encryption and penetration testing, in order to keep your application safe.

The Unqork platform also helps you manage complex release processes so you can deploy applications quickly and securely. Granular RBAC capabilities help you manage user access and permissions and track changes that have been made to your application. To further support effective collaboration, Unqork also allows you to manage multiple versions and live copies of your application for release and review—you can even go back if mistakes are made. 

By expediting the release management process, your application can hit the market faster and start driving value. Plus, with help from Unqork’s no-code release management tools, you can make your application the best it can be.

To experience Unqork’s capabilities first-hand, schedule a personalized demo with one of our in-house experts. Interested in learning more about no-code? Sign up for the Unqork newsletter.