Release and Deployment Management

By the end

What you'll build

• Distinguish release from deployment and plan each one separately
• Choose a deployment approach — phased, parallel, canary or single cut-over — and justify it
• Define entry and exit criteria for every environment a build passes through
• Prepare and rehearse a back-out or roll-forward plan before the deployment window
• Coordinate early-life support and hand a release into normal operation

Curriculum

What's inside

6 modules · 35 lessons

1. 01

   Release versus deployment

   6 lessons
   • Separating 'available to run' from 'available to users'
   • Release units and their dependencies
   • Feature flags and decoupling release from deployment
   • Release policy and cadence
   • Who owns a release across its life
   • + 1 more lesson
2. 02

   Environments and build promotion

   6 lessons
   • Designing entry and exit criteria for each environment
   • Environment parity and how drift creeps in
   • Build, package and version identity
   • Test evidence that genuinely supports promotion
   • Handling data safely in non-production environments
   • + 1 more lesson
3. 03

   Deployment approaches

   6 lessons
   • Choosing a deployment pattern for the risk you actually face
   • Phased and ring-based rollout
   • Parallel running and cut-over
   • Canary releases and observation windows
   • Single cut-over deployment, and when it is defensible
   • + 1 more lesson
4. 04

   Back-out, roll-forward and rehearsal

   6 lessons
   • Rehearsing the recovery path before you need it
   • Reversible and irreversible steps
   • Data migration and the point of no return
   • Go and no-go checkpoints
   • Communicating a rollback decision without drama
   • + 1 more lesson
5. 05

   Early-life support and handover

   6 lessons
   • Handing a release into normal operation
   • The warranty period and heightened monitoring
   • Knowledge and runbook transfer to support teams
   • Deferred defects and known errors at launch
   • Release review and the measures that matter
   • + 1 more lesson
6. 06

   Practice and check

   5 lessons
   • Release words that get used interchangeablymatch pairs
   • Putting a release into production without betting on lucksequence order
   • Saying precisely what you mean about a releasefill blank
   • Thursday night, one hour shortscenario
   • Course quizquiz

The shape of it

How this course works