Product Release Brainstorm July 27, 2010

Working Group: Patrick McNeal, Oliver Thomas, Garry Zacheiss, Steve Landry and Patricia Sheppard (Chris Gresham out sick)

1. Tiny Release process Tiny Release
   1. Cert Aid 2.0 walk through
   2. 1-3 day effort
2. Small Release process Small Release
   1. Ksplice walk through
   2. 1-3 week effort
   3. usually involves a public announcement
   4. not internal to IS&T
   5. added examples of "execute" to the checklist
3. Medium Release process Medium Release
   1. VPN and Web Moira walk throughs
   2. 1-3 month effort
   3. involves change to the product/service portfolio
   4. involves design or implementation decisions
   5. involves ramp of knowledge beyond public communication
   6. involves change in the business of other groups in IS&T
      1. formal Help Desk support
      2. DITR roll out
   7. involves contacting other groups in IS&T as partners (with ample time for them to respond)
      1. early engagement
         1. example of teams and types of engagement ISDA Service Readiness
            • inception
            • mid way through development
            • prior to go live
   8. involves outreach to power users and stakeholders
   9. custom training would push a release to Large
4. How do we encourage people to follow the proposed processes?
   1. need to articulate what's in it for the product/service owner (the benefits)
      1. you engage teams like the Help Desk and have them as an advocate for your product/service
      2. valuable communication conduits
         • share information
         • know what's going on
      3. reinforces escalation path for product/service
   2. "don't remove from the equation" (not everything in a checklist may apply)
5. Criteria that have come to the surface
   1. duration (time)
   2. cost
   3. impact on users
   4. visibility
   5. resources needed
6. Tools we will need to implement the processes
   1. product/services portfolio
      1. database of products and services
      2. includes owner, contacts and escalation path
      3. Hermes maybe appropriate vehicle
   2. calendar for releases
      1. includes change log
   3. releaseball mailing list
7. Next steps
   1. draft Large Release process (Office 2010)
   2. draft Extra Large Release process (Exchange)

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 3rd from 3:30-4:30pm in W92-212 (Aquarium).  The proposed agenda is as follows:

1. Walk the following products through the proposed processes

• Office 2010 (large)

• Exchange (extra large)

2. Capture decision making criteria and role definitions as we do the product run throughs

3. Decide next steps (prep for 8/10 meeting)