This knowledge base article will cover Release Management from both the ITSM Ticketing and PPM Project management perspectives. This article is helpful for any change advisory board or product manager interested in formally managing releases within TDX.
Overview
With TeamDynamix there are two options in how to deal with the idea of releases: leveraging ITSM ticketing or by way of PPM Project Management. Common changes in a release are enhancement requests, bug fixes, etc. These tickets which could be changes, service requests, or even problems, can be converted to project tasks. Let's investigate the pros and cons of each method.
Managing Releases via ITSM Ticketing
Within TeamDynamix you can leverage existing ticketing functionality to create a parent ticket with the Release classification. From there, additional child tickets can be associated with the Release parent to demonstrate features that will be implemented in the Release, usually tracked as Change, Service Request, or Incident classifications.
The Release ticket would have a workflow to review and approve similar to a Change Management process workflow. The underlying changes likely would not have a change-level workflow applied necessarily, although the end result of said workflow could result in the ticket being included as a child ticket beneath the Release.
Managing Releases via a PPM Project
Occasionally, a Release may be unplanned, and come in by way of a Change, Service Request, or even Incident. High-maintenance Releases that come in as Tickets but need the collaboration and cooperation of multiple departments or functional areas can also be managed like a Project as well.
- Convert originating tickets to a project tasks within a Release Plan, either Card Wall (recommended) or traditional Waterfall.
- Use Card walls / backlog managers to build out your releases schedules and phases.
- When ready for Release, it is recommended to follow the Change Management process and log a single Change ticket to represent the entire for the release before the Change Advisory Board (CAB)
Integrations via Secret Keys
Additionally, within TDAdmin you can configure a Secret Key to integrate your releases with a code repository you have hosted online (such as Github or GitLab). Reference our knowledge base category on Source Control Integrations for more information. With a source control integration, comments made during code commits can then cascade out to either a ticket or a project task.