Release Management vs. Service Management - Release Management Best Practices

Release Management vs. Service Management

(Chapter 12 of Release Management Best Practices)

Executive Summary: Chapter Overview

IF4IT

The Bottom Line

Mirrors the Product Management relationship exactly, with Service in place of Product throughout.

Core Concepts

Concept	Definition & Strategic Role
Service Ownership	Accountability for the Service as a whole.
Release Owner	Most often the same person as the Service Owner.
Service Roadmap	Built directly from full Release lineage.

Quick Q&A

Question: Does the relationship work the same for a Service as a Product?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Should a Service Roadmap be built the same way?

Answer: Yes.

Overview

Service Management is about ownership and accountability for the Service as a whole — the parent, taking a long-horizon, holistic view. Every Release is simply a vehicle for delivering that parent to its target Environment, incrementally bringing the Service to market, one governed Change Set at a time. This chapter mirrors “Release Management vs. Product Management” with Service in place of Product and Service Owner in place of Product Owner throughout.

Release Management vs. Service Management — Service Management vs. Release Management Swimlane — Figure: Service Management vs. Release Management Swimlane — Service Management governs the Service as an ongoing operational capability, including its definition, strategy, support model, service levels, health, and continual improvement. Release Management governs each individual Release that changes that Service, including Release intake, planning, scheduling, dependency coordination, Readiness Gates, movement across Environments, Deployment coordination, and progression to the target Environment as a stable Version.

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