7

RELEASING

The Releasing Process Group consists of one process that is performed at points within a project when a potentially releasable solution or a segment of that solution is delivered for feedback or review. This process is also performed when a released solution is evaluated for transition from ownership by the area that developed it to the area that will put it into operation. It is used to:

• Determine whether all or part of the solution should be released, and
• Obtain agreement that all or part of a solution is now ready to be transitioned to an operational team under the ownership of the business area that will have ongoing responsibility for it.

The Releasing Process Group provides information to support decision making about the solution and sometimes includes the work to facilitate the decision-making process. This is complementary to the Closing Process Group from a project management perspective, which verifies that the work to build the solution or a segment of the solution has been completed and contractual obligations have been met, and includes participating in the actual releasing decision itself. A significant amount of the business analysis work performed in the Releasing Process Group involves researching and assembling evidence that indicates whether or not the solution is ready to be released to production or handed over from the area that developed it to the area that will put it into operation. Evidence may include evaluating actual product performance or evaluating test results and feedback from product users or testers.

Table 7-1 depicts the relationship between the process within the Business Analysis Releasing Process Group and project management.

^A For the business analysis processes, the numbers in parentheses refer to the section numbers for the processes that appear in The Standard for Business Analysis; the other numbers refer to the sections in The PMI Guide to Business Analysis.

7.1 OBTAIN SOLUTION ACCEPTANCE FOR RELEASE

Obtain Solution Acceptance for Release is the process of facilitating a decision on whether to release a partial or full solution into production and eventually to an operational team, as well as transitioning knowledge and existing information about the product, its risks, known issues, and any workarounds that may have arisen in response to those issues. The key benefit of this process is the creation of an agreed-upon break between building a solution and releasing a solution for acceptance by the stakeholders. The inputs and outputs for this process are shown in Figure 7-1.