Stop Tracking Every Version Manually
While in some non-web channels it might differ, achieving Continuous Delivery involves letting go of manual version tracking and embracing automation.
One thing that strikes me about many companies is their ability to turn the release of new software versions into major events that can rival weddings, Christmas dinners, and other celebrations.
It’s not uncommon to find that companies with multiple teams working on the same product have a Release Manager. This person ensures that all releases follow the defined steps, knows exactly which features have been included or excluded, and identifies the responsible teams for each.
This process often involves a series of manual gatekeepers to ensure that when the product reaches a releasable state, everything works as expected. Here, we can find various roles, from the typical QA, or the Product Owner who wants to perform feature acceptance, to product departments preparing brochures of new features to notify customers.
What we find in these environments is that releases are slow, and besides the Release Manager, a large part of the organization knows the current version of the software. ‘The current version is 6.17.0.’
