Working model of a Release Decision Process

Narrowing a Release Decision

Release Decision - What criteria should we use?

End users - who are they, how global is the release?
Upgrades v. updates - what are the benefits?
- Security issues - are people vulnerable, is this critical?
- Costs of not upgrading/patching?
Product end-of-life/longevity?
How much control do we have over the software release process? MIT v. Vendor
Downstream Effects and Implications of decision on various groups: Help Desk and DITR, Security, Pubs and Training.
- Workload, resources, costs for each group.
External dependencies on a product - laws, regulations, features, functionality
Estimated Cost - people, equipment, licensing, support, on-time-cost of setup, cost of NOT doing it, cost of not getting involved (i.e. Mathmatica)?
Alignment with IS&T priorities and mission
Value v. Cost
Availability of resources
Scope of release - just documentation, software licensing, deployment vehicle?
- What is the granularity of the decision?

Type of Decisions

Small Scope (i.e. Acrobat Reader)
- Single or multi-platform
- Time to complete - 40 person hours or less
- Decision can be made and managed mostly within SWRT Team
Mediums Scope (i.e. VirusScan)
- Project, multiple people
- Multiple platforms involved - 1 month of calendar time
- Resources from CSS
- May have to use a few resources outside of SWRT
Large Scope (i.e. TSM, Apple Mail, MS Office)
- Large project with multiple people
- Resources outside of CSS are critical

Very Large Scope (i.e. Operating System)