Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for Release Manager
A Release Manager is a software professional who is responsible for planning, scheduling, and coordinating the release of software updates and new versions to production. They ensure that software releases are delivered on time, with high quality, and minimal impact to the production environment. In this blog post we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Release Managers.
Get market insights and compare skills for other jobs here.
Main Responsibilities of Release Manager
The following list describes the typical responsibilities of a Release Manager:
Analyze
Analyze customer data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
Anticipate
Anticipate issues and report them to Release and Deployment management.
Assist in
Assist in improving processes and procedures within the team.
Assist in management, maintenance, and automation of CM tools.
Assist in the tracking of tasks and deadlines involved in the release.
Assist product management and project teams manage and deploy releases into production.
Assist with defining architecture and product functionality.
Assist with maintenance, automation and scaling of our CI and CD infrastructure.
Assist with "root cause” analysis when failures occur.
Assume
Assume overall responsibility for release package artifacts and delivery.
Audit
Audit / monitor the automated process to validate results and effectiveness.
Build
Build exceptional relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Collaborate with
Collaborate with peers and service partners to implement applications upgrades.
Communicate
Communicate on the state of the program in key checkpoint reviews.
Communicate plans, status, and issues within Engineering and to Leadership teams.
Communicate release details and schedules to the Business as required.
Communicate release status meetings with the Business as required.
Communicate release status updates.
Communicate upcoming release implementation window and post-deployment activities.
Conduct
Conduct quarterly reviews of deployment activities and deployment operations.
Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Commitment Reviews.
Confirm
Confirm pricing and availability in the store.
Coordinate
Coordinate cert and submission schedule with Production and the Live Ops Producer.
Coordinate code merge for releases to production.
Coordinate release builds to the appropriate environments (Development, Staging, Production, etc.).
Coordinate release deployments and code cuts with our Development Operations Team.
Coordinate the success of one or multiple VMware products across geographies.
Coordinate with QA and development leads to mitigate risk to releases.
Define
Define and apply release management processes across the organization.
Define and deliver the go forward Resource Planning toolset and frameworks.
Define, create, and maintain knowledge documents pertaining to Release Management delivery plans.
Define releases, program increments, participate in PI planning.
Design
Design and maintain tools to automate operational and application processes.
Develop
Develop software and processes to streamline releases and stabilise deployments.
Develop test plans, and ensure that changes have test coverage.
Develop, tracks, reports and manages engineering delivery tasks.
Document
Document and communicate project status and scheduling.
Document the release management process.
Drive
Drive and track software releases for new software features.
Drive Production Readiness or Go / No-Go decisions.
Engage
Engage and support project delivery teams for post release activities.
Ensure
Ensure appropriate change details are documented.
Ensure change certification prior to upper environment release.
Ensure code merging is successful across multiple branches.
Ensure compliance to entry and exit governance criteria on every deployment.
Ensure contractual service support requirements are understood and managed.
Ensure monitoring of environment usage is conducted across all non-production environments.
Ensure that defects are triaged quickly, and customers receive progress updates.
Ensure that planned features are tested by the engineering team.
Ensure the SFDC scheduled updates are considered when deployment schedule is planned.
Establish
Establish and oversee the Release Management procedures and processes for the overall team.
Establish consistent practices for source code management across the team.
Establish QA and test processes to ensure high quality releases.
Establish release management oversight.
Establish release schedules, tracking, and control procedures.
Evaluate
Evaluate and communicate any expected impact to service levels due to release.
Facilitate
Facilitate cross-department coordination of release management functions.
Facilitate system demos and solution demos.
Facilitate weekly summary status reports.
Formulate
Formulate releases and drive through an environment.
Forward
Forward Plan the releases, release windows and cycles across key stakeholders.
Gather
Gather and submit required documents for age-rating agencies.
Generate
Generate operations and executive dashboard reports and KPI analysis as needed.
Get
Get business approval on the scope.
Help
Help determine business priorities and best sequence for execution of business / group strategy.
Help manage risks and dependencies.
Help streamline day-to-day operations.
Identify
Identify and / or challenge schedules that could create conflicts.
Identify and escalate risks to completion of the testing program for a given release.
Identify and recommend solutions to processes that execute outside of the Release Management process.
Identify gaps including any DevOps tools insufficiencies.
Identify gaps in customer experiences and seek opportunities to improve them.
Identify interdependencies as uncovered by conducting planning for multiple teams.
Identify project bottlenecks and assign team members to increase efficiency.
Implement
Implement and streamline tools such as JIRA to manage the release lifecycle.
Improve
Improve and maintain all processes related to building and testing the product.
Initiate
Initiate and monitor Release Requests.
Interface with
Interface and communicate with Test Managers, Dev Managers, IT Ops and the PMO.
Keep
Keep CI / CD related technical documentation up to date.
Lead
Lead and co-ordinate the Go-Live activities including the execution of the deployment.
Lead change and release management activities for releases.
Lead lesson learned processes and improvement plans.
Lead the effort of defining the direction for release management tools and process.
Learn
Learn, track, and internally report on frequently-changing partner submission requirements.
Liaise with
Liaise with the business and the technology development and support groups.
Maintain
Maintain and publish release calendar.
Maintain production system reliability through utilization of change management process.
Maintain proper version controls of software deliverables.
Maintain release and deployment procedures – ensure all personnel are trained on expected processes.
Maintain release notes and installation documentation.
Maintain the release schedule for all core services and ensure alignment across project teams.
Make
Make recommendations for more efficient future-state processes.
Make informed decisions based on past experience and input from the team.
Manage
Manage activities in a global and matrix organization.
Manage and coordinates usage of the non-production environments in support of release cycles.
Manage and evolve the communication strategy and content for release readiness.
Manage budgets with a solid understanding of CAPEX and OPEX financial rules.
Manage communications with other departments, developers and external partners.
Manage content submission cycles.
Manage / Coordinate other Network team members and / or 3rd party vendors for releases.
Manage deployments between sandbox environments.
Manage, Facilitate, and Coordinate promotion / release into production.
Manage multiple tasks effectively, progresses work in parallel.
Manage relationships and coordinates projects across portfolios and teams.
Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams at different locations.
Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams at different locations and vendors.
Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams in different locations.
Manage risks and resolve issues that affect release scope, schedule, and quality.
Manage sandbox environments and coordinate schedules for conducting refreshes.
Manage special projects as assigned by management to meet customer and cross-functional team needs.
Measure
Measure and evaluate progress against release plans with the client Service Delivery Manager.
Measure and monitor progress to ensure on-time application releases.
Monitor
Monitor and control all release activities.
Monitor delivery timings and make sure planning is respected.
Monitor environment capacity and manage changes to keep capacity aligned with demand.
Monitor health, usage and overall compliance of the application.
Monitor the compliance of existing change management processes.
Notify
Notify all stakeholders of all changes / delays in a timely fashion.
Oversee
Oversee the release and stability of the core rendering software.
Own
Own release runbooks, implementation and post deployment stabilisation activities.
Own the monitoring, management and reporting of performance post release using analytic tools.
Own the Portfolio release calendar to provide a global view of all releases across the portfolio.
Own the product release and rollout schedule.
Perform
Perform routine project activities required to manage release by test production and environments.
Plan
Plan and communicate release windows and overall.
Plan, coordinate, and execute the tasks required for a successful software deployment.
Prepare
Prepare and deliver presentations for senior leaders.
Prepare and implement appropriate test plans, quality checks, and procedures.
Prepare release notes and communicate release status to stakeholders and project teams.
Present
Present and communicate at all levels within IT and across businesses / groups.
Prioritize
Prioritize tasks and tickets on a daily basis to keep sprints on track.
Produce
Produce deployment and implementation plans.
Produce deployment, execute books and implementation plans.
Program
Program / Project management, with experience leading multiple large projects.
Promote
Promote an Agile environment.
Promote the Release Management process and refine and improve it as required.
Provide
Provide a deeper understanding of the team's reporting.
Provide advice and guidance to assigned business / group on implementation of solutions.
Provide detailed and summary updates to team and executives on a timely and status basis.
Provide detailed root analysis on deployment actions successful or un-successful as required.
Provide early and frequent guidance to teams enabling them to prepare for release governance.
Provide guidance and conflict resolution for the team members.
Provide insight and oversight and promote best practices in Quality and Release Processes.
Provide recommendations for continuous improvement.
Provide regular status updates on the release.
Provide support to project teams in configuring and base-lining project items.
Publish
Publish regular release status to Stakeholders.
Recognize
Recognize themes in issues reported by partners with using SDK or other tools in content workflow.
Recommend
Recommend and implement solutions based on analysis of issues and implications for the business.
Report
Report on and track deployment issues.
Represent
Represent release priorities and align team members through rapid changes.
Resolve
Resolve submission blockers by working with platform partner representatives.
Review
Review and recommend improvements to existing CM processes.
Review release acceptance criteria prior to testing.
Review SFDC release notes to understand new features and are communicated to stakeholders.
Schedule
Schedule the release readiness reviews before deployment and milestone reviews after each release.
Send out
Send out regular reports to provide status updates and highlight risks.
Set up
Set up deployment planning meetings with AD, AO and BES to create deployment plan.
Share
Share knowledge and mentor junior resources.
Submit
Submit the product on different stores (iOS, Google Play as well as other stores when relevant).
Take
Take Ownership for deliverables and dates, can do attitude.
Take ownership over release process.
Track
Track deadlines across the team, escalating as required and coordinate updates.
Troubleshoot
Troubleshoot and lead resolution of integration issues in client environments.
Understand
Understand options to trigger processing on AWS.
Understand the release requirements based on the Project plans.
Upload
Upload the new builds and metadata on each platform.
Work with
Work across Engineering and project teams to ensure that features are tested.
Work closely with development team (s) to resolve build problems / merge conflicts.
Work closely with the Tech, Cloud, Tools, Automation, QA and Project teams.
Work proactively with IT to ensure future Build & Release infrastructure needs are met.
Work with a global team spread across tech hubs in multiple geographies and time zones.
Work with appropriate team members to ensure bug fixes happen as planned.
Work with Atlassian suite of products, such as Jira.
Work with client technical teams to upgrade new releases in client environments.
Work with DevOPS & Engineers to ensure configurations are set for the Code Release.
Work with engineering to understand the impacts of branches and code merges.
Work with other Operations team members to secure and schedule resources.
Work with Project and Line Manager on any improvements and efficiencies to process.
Work with Project Management to track changes in upcoming releases.
Work with release engineers to understand impacts of branches and code merges.
Work with the Product Owners and may act as Master in Scrum of Scrums.
Write
Write customer facing release notes and technical release change logs.
Most In-demand Hard Skills
The following list describes the most required technical skills of a Release Manager:
SAAS Environment
Software Development
GIT
AWS
Agile Methodologies
CI / CD
Devops
Most In-demand Soft Skills
The following list describes the most required soft skills of a Release Manager:
Written and oral communication skills
Organizational capacity
Problem-solving attitude
Analytical ability
Leadership
Interpersonal skills
Self-motivated
Self-starter
Collaborative
Team player
Focused
Accountable
Attention to detail
"can do" attitude
Committed
