The deployment activity encompasses three actions : delivery, support, and feedback. Because modern software process models are evolutionary in nature, deployment happens not once, but a number of times as software moves towards completion. Each delivery cycle provides the customer and end-users with an operational software increment that provides usable functions and features. Each support cycle provides the documentation and human assistance for all the functions and features. Each feedback cycle provides the software team with important guidance that results in modifications to the functions, features, and approach taken for the next increment.
A number of key principles that should be followed are :
- Customer expectations for the software must be managed.
- A complete delivery package should be assembled and tested.
- A support regime must be established before the software is delivered.
- Appropriate instructional materials must be provided to end-users.
- Buggy software should be fixed first, delivered later.
A delivered software provides benefit for the end-user, but it also provides useful feedback for the software team. As the increment is put into use, the end-users should be encouraged to comment on features and functions, ease of use, reliability, and any other characteristics that are appropriate. feedback should be collected and recorded by the software team and used to :
- make immediate modifications to the delivered increment.
- define changes to be incorporated into the next planned increment.
- make necessary design modifications to accommodate changes.
- revise the plan for the next increment to reflect the changes.
Recent Comments