The document presents a comprehensive overview of release management practices for live websites, highlighting essential concepts, workflows, and tools like Git and Jira. It emphasizes the importance of predictability, accountability, and reliability within release processes, detailing specific workflows for developers and project teams. Additionally, it outlines the roles of different environments (development, staging, production) and the need for effective documentation and continuous testing.

1. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Release Management
For Live Websites
BADCamp 2016

2. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
JESSE HOFMANN-SMITH
jhofmann-smith@phase2technology.com
Drupal.org: jessehs
Twitter: @jessetweet
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Senior Developer, Growth & Support

3. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Project Teams
Project Managers Developers
Who is this
presentation
for?
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Basic technical concepts
Example workflows
Set reasonable expectations
Stakeholders

4. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
FIRE
What’s the big
deal?
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5. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Predictability
● Accountability
● Reliability
WORKFLOWS for
TESTING and RELEASE
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6. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
USE GIT
Distributed Version Control System --
allows multiple collaborators
History -- go back in time
Code snapshots (tags) for deployments
Open Source workflows 6

7. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Tools for
Collaboration
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JIRA
Customizable Swimlanes show status
Each request tracked by a ticket
Ex: PSUM-1001

8. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Tools for
Collaboration
Pull Request Workflow
Easily comment on code
Emojis
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Bitbucket

9. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
JIRA and Git for “Archaeology”
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Add ticket number to commit message
Branch name includes ticket number

10. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Each Project Is Different
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11. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Workflow expectations
● Modify JIRA
● Git conventions to suit the needs
Customize Your Tools
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12. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Workflow
Expectations
Define them
Who can create new tickets?
Who assigns priority?
Who delegates tasks?
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13. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Modify JIRA
● Add new swimlanes
● Restrict ability to create new
tickets
● Tags for filtering tickets
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14. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Git Workflow
Matches Needs
Larger teams benefit from tighter,
more restricted workflows
Small teams are more efficient with a
limited workflow
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15. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Branching
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16. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Git Flow
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http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/
New features are branched off of
develop, and merged into develop
Great for pre-production sites
New features inherit all previous code
on the develop branch

17. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Wunderflow
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http://wunderflow.wunder.io/
New features are branched off of
master, and merged into develop
Each feature remains independent
Features are tested on the develop branch, but merged back into master

18. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Checkout master, branch off as a ticket
branch
● Commit a code fix
● Submit a Pull Request to the develop
branch, add a reviewer
● Reviewer approves, merges
● See how JIRA ticket is updated with Pull
Request, commit based on ticket number
in the commit message and the name of
the branch.
Developer Approach --
step by step
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19. RELEASE MANAGEMENT 19

20. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Hosting Environments
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LOCAL
DEV
STAGE
PROD

21. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Your LOCAL
Mock Deployment
1. Checkout the production
branch.
2. Reload the database and
clear cache.
3. Checkout ticket branch.
4. Run the database update
script.
5. Confirm code works
6. *ONLY NOW* can you
submit your Pull Request.
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● MAMP/WAMP
● Homebrew
● Vagrant VM
● Acquia Dev Desktop
● Docker containsers like
Devtools, Kalabox

22. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Dev / Integration
• Runs the “develop” branch
• Often set up for
auto-deployment after PR
is merged
• Developer confirms fix here
• CI tests run here
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23. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Test / Staging
• Runs the release candidate
branch
• Mock production
deployment is run here
• Comprehensive testing
suite can be run here
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24. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Production • Runs the production
branch
• Testing suite can also be
run here
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25. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Production
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26. RELEASE MANAGEMENT 26

27. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
PREDICTABILITY • Guidelines to follow
• Routine is good
• Failure indicates need for
improvements in
procedure
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Established Procedure

28. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
ACCOUNTABILITY
• Release manager
• Checks and balances
• Look at tickets and test
related functionality
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Boots on the Ground

29. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
RELIABILITY
...of Staging
• Prod vs. Release Candidate
• Ex: Visual Regression Tests
...of Dev
• Continuous Integration
• Ex: Behat
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Automated Testing
...of Staging

30. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Code is deployed to the dev environment.
Developer reviews, merges fix. *
● Ticket is assigned to the reporter for
review.
● Reviewer approves fix, marks ticket as
ready to deploy.
● Developer submits PR into RC branch.
● Release manager approves, merges.
● Ticket’s “Fix Version” updated to RC name
Preparing for Release
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31. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● The release candidate is merged into the
master and production branches*
● Production release tagged
● Test deployment performed on Staging
(review steps from slide 21)
● More testing...
● Ready to schedule the Production
Deployment!
Ready for Production
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32. RELEASE MANAGEMENT 32

33. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Release manager merges
● Document merge steps in commit
message
● Use a good merge tool
Merge Conflicts
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Manual Merge
...of Staging

34. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Re-branch from master
● git cherry-pick commits in order
Improper
Branching
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The Cherry Pick
...of Staging

35. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Local History
● git add -p
Lets you stage each hunk
individually
Merging
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Use your IDE
...of Staging

36. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
● Branch from master
● Merge directly into master
● Tag and deploy a release
● Be sure to deploy to Staging first
● Merge master back into develop,
release candidate
Hotfix
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37. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
DOCUMENTATION
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Keep it up to date!
...of Staging

38. RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Thanks!
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