From Release Bottleneck to Deployment FlowThe Automation of Release Management at Eaton Vance

Jonathan Thorpe

Jonathan Thorpe is Product Marketing Manager for all things DevOps and Continuous Delivery at Serena Software. 

Previously Jonathan worked as a Systems Analyst at Electric Cloud, specializing in DevOps-related solutions. Prior to Electric Cloud Jonathan worked in development teams specializing in development process and infrastructure.

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For Eaton Vance Internal Use Only

Richard Michaels

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Richard is Assistant Vice President, Quality Assurance & Release Manager at Eaton Vance

Joined Eaton Vance, January 2005 as a Senior Developer

November 2007, Transitioned to Quality Assurance September 2008, took over Release Management January 2009, named Quality Assurance & Release

Manager.

The Automation Of Release Management

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Introduction

Eaton Vance Corp. Boston, MA based Investment Management Firm.

One of the oldest firms in the United States, history dates back to 1924.

1,300+ Employees

$273.1 Billion in Assets Under Management as of September 30, 2013

Richard A. MichaelsAssistant Vice President, Quality Assurance & Release Manager

Joined Eaton Vance, January 2005 as a Senior Developer

November 2007, Transitioned to Quality Assurance

September 2008, took over Release Management

January 2009, named Quality Assurance & Release Manager.

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State of Release Management – Pre-September 2008

– No policy or procedures in place.

– No standards for release request.

– Request submitted via e-mail.

– Inability to track state of release request.

– Web Team releases not fully integrated into process.

– Release scripts were written by hand and prone to errors.

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State of Release Management – Sept 2008 thru Feb 2013

– Decentralized:

• Releases are performed by multiple groups.

• Not all groups follow the designated release procedures.

• All Release Engineers not associated with Release Management

– Manual Process:

• Release Engineer must save files from SCM system to staging areas.

• Release Engineer must RDP to different target systems for deployment execution.

• Batch execution file needed for each release.

– SharePoint Based Request and Management System for UAT:

• Lacks sufficient security.

• Inconsistent notification about submitted request.

• Slow response.

• No true association with the production release.

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Release Management Releases

– In-House Software Development

• Visual Basic 6.0 applications

• Microsoft ASP.Net Web Applications

• Microsoft C#/VB.Net Windows Services

• PHP Web Applications

– Database Development

• Microsoft SQL Server Scripts

• Microsoft SQL Server BCP

– Data Warehouse

• ELT Applications

– Enterprise Scheduling

• Workload Automation Applications

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Release Management Process Flow

Development/Deployment

ReleaseRequest

Deployment/UAT Testing

Business Owner/CAB Approval

Production Deployment/

Release Closure

BusinessChangeRequest

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Release Management Control with SharePoint (UAT)

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Release Management Process Improvements

– Centralize

• All UAT and Production releases managed by the IT Release Management department.

• All releases follow an established process .

• IT Release Management assumes full responsibility and accountability for releases.

– Secure and Control Releases

• Enforced separation of duties.

• Build and release code from “Gold Source” repository vault.

• Implementation of Release Windows.

– Automate Release Process:

• Release procedures are standardized, controlled and repeatable.

• Release processes can be integrated with “Gold Source” repository vault.

• Execution agents to replace need to RDP to target servers.

• Execution agents replace need to write batch files.

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Why Serena?

– User Friendly

• Minimal change and impact on the user community

• Ease of adoption/Buy-In

– Fit for purpose

• Release Control

• Release Vault

• Release Automation

– Customization & Integration

• Highly customizable

• Consumes and exposes web services.

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Release Management Process Flow

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Release Management Control with Serena RLM

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Release Management Goals For 2014

– Product & Process Integration

• Bi-Directional integration of Serena RLM with BMC Remedy Change Management system.

• Integrate Peer Review process into the Release Request process.

• Integrate Jenkins CI & Serena Release Automation.

• Enhance system to accommodate UAT only releases.

• Enhance system to accommodate re-releases to production in accordance with change policy.

• Expand use of tools to enterprise COTS applications.

• Assume responsibility for all Oracle releases.

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Summary

– Serena Release Manager

• Release Management controls and manages UAT and Production releases.

• Releases follow the established release process .

• Enforced separation of duties via role and user based security.

• Compliance accountability for Who, What and When for all releases.

– Serena Release Automation:

• Secure and controlled path to production

• Release code from “Gold Source” repository vault.

• Ability to roll back applications to a known state.

• Accelerate time to release for deployments.

• Improve deployment success with controlled and repeatable processes.

SERENA SOFTWARE, INC.

Serena Release Control Provides Visibility, Flexibility and Compliance Support

Release Control Features

• Browser-based workflow, which manages the entire release process from initial request, through release planning, to release and verification in production

• Visual Release Calendar, which provides schedule visibility, ensures process enforcement, notification, and reporting

• Single system of record for release planning, approval, and control

• Highly configurable processes

• Seamless integration with Serena Release Automation for artifact repository and automated deployment and configuration

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Release Item Management

Calendar

Release Requests

SERENA SOFTWARE, INC.

Serena Release Automation for Enterprise Class Predictability, Quality, and Productivity

Release Automation Features

• Automated deployment process replaces scripting and manual actions

• Easy to use graphical editor for process and deployment automation

• Model-based deployments through application snapshots

• Artifact repository providing secure storage and traceability (.exe, .war, .jar, .dll, etc.)

• Full visibility, out-of the-box audit and compliance reports to achieve internal and industry regulatory compliance

• Role-based security, approvals, and notification support

• High availability clustering for enterprise class solutions18

Per Environment Approach

Reporting

Visual Process Design

SERENA SOFTWARE INC.

Questions?

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SERENA SOFTWARE INC.20

Call To Action

Learn More About How Serena can help you take next steps in your DevOps Journey!

Contact:

info@serena.com

Jonathan Thorpe jthorpe@serena.com

Richard Michaels rmichaels@eatonvance.com