The Modern Release Management Process: Separating Deployment from Delivery

In the modern release management process, the separation of deployment from release is emphasized to enhance both speed and safety in software delivery. Deployment, a technical task, involves moving code to a target environment and should be automated and frequent, while release, a business decision, controls when users can access new features. This decoupling allows teams to test in production without exposing bugs to all users, thus minimizing risks associated with deployment days. Progressive delivery, through methods such as canary releases, and governance tools like feature flags, approval workflows, and role-based access controls (RBAC), play vital roles in modernizing the release process. The implementation of automated verification and builds ensures that manual interventions are minimized to reduce human error. Teams are encouraged to measure process effectiveness using DORA metrics, focusing on deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and failed deployment recovery time. Emphasizing small batch releases, automated testing, and efficient governance helps in mitigating common pitfalls such as “big bang” releases and the maintenance burden of feature flags, ultimately transitioning the focus from "when" to launch to "how" to launch safely.