ReleasePlan

ReleasePlan is a project artifact used in software development to outline planned releases. It coordinates activities across teams, stakeholders, and environments, translating product strategy into a time-bound set of releases.

A ReleasePlan typically includes release scope, goals, features by release, timeline or cadence, milestones, iteration plans, dependencies, resource and capacity estimates, risk and mitigation, testing and quality criteria, deployment and rollback procedures, environments, training and documentation needs, and success criteria. It serves as a central reference for what will be delivered, when, and under what conditions.

Process wise, a ReleasePlan is developed during a release planning phase, drawing from the product roadmap, program backlog, or release backlog. It is reviewed and updated periodically as priorities shift or new information becomes available. Progress is often tracked using metrics such as velocity, burn-down, or burn-up charts to monitor completion against plan.

Purpose and use of a ReleasePlan include communicating the plan to stakeholders, aligning expectations across product, development, operations, and business teams, and supporting release governance. It aids capacity planning, informs marketing, sales, and support activities, and helps determine gating criteria for release readiness.

The ReleasePlan relates to other artifacts such as the product roadmap, backlog, sprint plans, test plans, deployment plans, and post-release support plans. Variants exist across methodologies: agile contexts may use time-boxed releases, while frameworks like SAFe reference release trains; continuous delivery environments emphasize frequent releases with planned major releases.

Tools commonly used to manage ReleasePlans include project management and collaboration platforms that support backlog, milestones, and cross-team visibility.