Release Management with codebeamer #31291/HEAD / v8617 |
Release Management with codebeamerTable of Contents
OverviewRelease (Version) Management is about maintaining and tracking different versions of your project deliverables, along with their planned and actual release schedule and the issues to be resolved in each different version. This is not only applicable to software development, but also to any type of project where some milestones need to be reached. For instance, in a construction project, you can track the construction tasks that need to be completed in the construction milestones like groundwork, walls or roof construction. Important note: the words version, milestone and release, as well as sprint and sub-release are used interchangeably in this article. Release Management primarily involves:
Adding, Updating and Deleting ReleasesReleases are modeled as configuration items in codebeamer, leveraging the extremely rich CMDB functionality available. Being first-class citizens in the CMDB, releases themselves are very powerful entities:
In other words, you have almost the same functionality available for releases as for regular configuration- or work items.
Maintaining releases: you can create, update and delete releases by adding, updating or deleting items in the corresponding configuration tracker.
By default, there is exactly one configuration tracker initialized for this purpose in each newly created project. It is intuitively called Releases. You can start your release management work adding an item to this tracker, named for example 1.0-beta.
Product Backlog displays work items only for the built-in Release field in the Releases Planner and in Kanban Board View.
Items of custom choice fields or reference fields are not shown. Breaking Releases into Sprints or Sub-releases
Associating Issues with Detected and Target ReleasesAfter you have submitted your release to the configuration tracker Releases, you can associate work item with it. Set the Release fields of the issues to e.g.: 1.0-beta or to the release in which you are going to address them. You can similarly set the Detected in issue fields to the release in which the bugs have been detected.
Both Detected in and Release allow specification of multiple releases. This increases flexibility: for example, a bug can be reported in multiple released product versions and can also be fixed in multiple versions yet to be released. Tracking Releases: Progress ReportsAt this point, you might want to check the status of your currently running releases. For this, visit the Releases category in your project. This screen gives you a fast and easy-to-understand progress report on your releases, in real time. Figure: Tasks and Bugs relevant to codebeamer Release 7.10.0
Quick Access LinksHovering over a Release reveals links to other views of that release including:
Gantt ChartYou can view the release and its subsprints represented as a Gantt chart. For more information have a look at this page. Figure: Release Gantt Chart on Release Dashboard page
Burn Down ChartRelease Dashboard shows the Burn Down Chart for the release right above the filters:
Users can individually configure the chart. (Configuration stored for each specific user, does not affect other users' Release Dashboard.) See You must login to see this link. Register now, if you have no user account yet. page for complete reference of the Burn Down Chart plugin.
Overdue itemsYou might see overdue items in the progress information. Figure: Overdue items indicator
Overdue items also have an additional badge inside their row, like in this example: Figure: Overdue items indicator inside the table of items
To find out which items are indicated here, click on the release name to get to the Release Details screen, and choose the appropriate filter in the top right part of the page from the Filter menu. Figure: Setting an Overdue filter
Tracking Releases: Work Items
Completing Releases
Roadmaps: Future ReleasesA release roadmap is the plan of future releases with their scheduling and planned issue sets. This is what you see when looking at the initial state of the Releases category screen. Release History: Completed ReleasesA release history is simply the log of completed releases with their release dates and their fixed issues sets. This is what you see at the bottom part of the release list after selecting the Show released checkbox. Generating Release NotesWriting release notes documents is time consuming work. In codebeamer, you can generate release notes simply by clicking on the Release Notes link in top-right corner of a release box.
In the next screen you can choose in which format you want to generate the document: plain text, wiki or HTML. The results are immediately available and can be copied to product documentation or to a webpage.
The default release notes documents contain simplistic issue lists. To support custom content and formatting, release notes are generated from templates. If you have special content or formatting requirements, edit the corresponding Velocity templates in the $CODEBEAMER_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/tomcat/webapps/cb/config/templates/release-notes directory. Certain conditions must be met for listing issues in release notes. This is evaluated by Meaning properties assigned to option values of Status and Resolved fields. To make an issue appear in release notes both of the following conditions must be met:
It is not the name of the option that is getting evaluated but the Meaning property even if they have identical names in certain cases. Properties can be altered on the Fields tab of the tracker customization by clicking on the Option link of the corresponding field. Attached screenshots demonstrate the Meaning property configuration of Status and Resolution fields of the default Bugs tracker. Before making any changes to these settings, refer to the Status and Resolution Meaning section of Tracker Workflows wiki page. These settings have direct effect on workflows and their behaviors. Figure: Option window of Status field of default Bugs tracker
Figure: Editing window of Resolved option of Status field of default Bugs tracker
Figure: Option window of Resolution field of default Bugs tracker Figure: Editing window of Fixed option of Resolution field of default Bugs tracker
Customizing the Default Release Workflow
Live DemoTo see Release Management in action, visit the public You must login to see this link. Register now, if you have no user account yet.. |
Fast Links
codebeamer Overview codebeamer Knowledge Base Services by Intland Software |
This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to improve your browsing experience, constantly optimize the functionality and content of our website, furthermore helps us to understand your interests and provide more personalized services to you, both on this website and through other media. With your permission we and our partners may use precise geolocation data and identification through device scanning. You may click accept to consent to our and our partners’ processing as described above. Please be aware that some processing of your personal data may not require your consent, but you have a right to object to such processing. By using our website, you acknowledge this notice of our cookie practices. By accepting and continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use. For more information about the cookies we use, please visit our Privacy Policy.Your preferences will apply to this website only.
Note that user-behavior analytics are being captured on this server for the purpose of improving the Codebeamer user experience.