Stop 07 · Agile, Execution & DeliveryTopics · 8/12

Release Management

In short

Finishing code and putting it in front of users are two different events. Release management is how you get from one to the other without nasty surprises.

Planning how and when finished work actually reaches users — feature flags, staged rollouts, release notes and rollback plans — separate from the question of when code is merged.

The purple blob serves food to a few animal friends at a tiny new restaurant with two tables.

Think of it like this

The restaurant soft launch

A new restaurant doesn't open to the whole city on day one. First, friends and family eat there for a week. The kitchen fixes slow dishes. Then it opens to the public. Staged releases work the same way.

Watch it happen

A staged rollout

Flag off

Internal

5% users

100%

Announce

1/5Code ships to production behind a feature flag that is switched off. Nobody sees it yet.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Deploy is not release

Feature flags let code be live but hidden. You choose when users see it.

Always have a rollback

Know how to switch it off or revert before you switch it on.

Release notes

Tell users and internal teams what changed, in plain language.

Pick your timing

Many teams avoid big releases late on Friday or right before a holiday sale.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Releasing to 100% of users at once.

Do this instead

Start small, watch the metrics, then ramp up.

Oops

Forgetting to brief support before launch.

Do this instead

Give support a short FAQ so they aren't surprised by user questions.

Your mission

Write a release plan

~25 min

Quick check

Why release to 5% of users before everyone?

Go deeper

1Learn the difference between 'code complete' and 'released to users'.
2Study how a staged rollout (1% → 10% → 100%) reduces launch risk.
3Draft a simple release checklist for a hypothetical feature launch.