How do you align your deployment goals with stakeholder expectations?

3 Plan your deployment strategy and process

Once you have defined your deployment goals and identified your stakeholders and their expectations, you need to plan your deployment strategy and process. This involves deciding how, when, where, and by whom your software will be deployed, as well as what steps and resources are necessary for a successful deployment. Your strategy should take into account the deployment environment (hardware, software, network, configuration settings), the deployment method (manual, automated, continuous, incremental, rollback), the deployment schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, on-demand), the roles and responsibilities of those involved (people or teams with their tasks and duties), and the risks and mitigation strategies (potential issues or problems and how to prevent or resolve them).

4 Test your deployment

Before you launch your software to the end users and stakeholders, you need to test your deployment thoroughly and rigorously. Testing your deployment ensures that your software works as expected in the deployment environment, meets the stakeholder expectations, and does not cause any negative impacts or disruptions. You should perform various types of testing, such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing, load testing, security testing, or usability testing. You should also document and report your testing results and findings, and fix any bugs or errors that you discover.

5 Monitor and evaluate your deployment

After you launch your software to the end users and stakeholders, you need to monitor and evaluate your deployment continuously and systematically. Monitoring and evaluating your deployment helps you to measure the performance and outcomes of your software, track the feedback and satisfaction of your stakeholders, identify and address any issues or incidents that may occur, and improve your software quality and functionality. You should use various tools and methods to monitor and evaluate your deployment, such as metrics, indicators, dashboards, logs, alerts, surveys, or reviews. You should also communicate and share your monitoring and evaluation results and insights with your stakeholders, and solicit their input and suggestions.

By following these steps, you can align your deployment goals with stakeholder expectations, and ensure a smooth and successful transition from development to operation. Deploying a software product is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant attention and improvement. Therefore, you should always strive to optimize your deployment strategy and process, and deliver the best value and experience to your end users and stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?