Chapter 8: Release and Post-Release Tips

Release day is finally here! The process of moving an application into production is the end of a long road traveled. Depending on the project, you might spend hours, weeks, months, or even years of blood, sweat, and tears getting ready for this big event. Now the light at the end of the tunnel approaches. Is it the sun at the end of the tunnel or a freight train about to run you over? Deploying a project into production can go smoothly, or not, depending on the planning and attention to detail.

This chapter outlines some things to verify as you and your clients move the product into production, ideas on supporting a release, and items to consider after a release is completed.

Checklist/Instructions

Having a checklist or step-by-step instructions to implement a release is important. We have seen the panic on other developers ‚ faces and have had that pit of the stomach ‚“oh no ‚½ moment ourselves . This is when something goes wrong with no way back to the original state of the data, or the application, or both.

As we noted throughout this book, installation software is much more sophisticated today than the DOS batch files used in the 1980s. Still, having complete step-by-step instructions on how to install the software is essential to the success of an implementation, especially if one of your customers is the one implementing. Do not write volumes on the topic because the customer will never read it if they perceive it as overwhelming. Make the instructions concise , but informative. The instructions should include all the steps up to running SETUP.EXE and all the steps needed after the setup is complete and before they start using the new application or update.

On The Web ‚  

We included one sample checklist in the chapter downloads called InstallChecklistSample.doc.

Your checklist (see Figure 1 for an example) may be different for each customer and for each application. It is also influenced by the technologies you are deploying and by the technologies used to create the installation package. The detail you include is influenced by the person performing the deployment and their experience. If you are performing the install you might only need a bullet point to remind you what is next . If your customer has an internal Information Systems (IS) staff or you have someone from your technical support staff making an on-site visit, you might limit the amount of detail. If the end users are installing the application or update they might need step-by-step instructions with supporting screen shots to make sure they get it right.

Figure 1. This is a sample checklist for installing an application in production.