release management

Release management - the IT equivalent of herding cats

Studies have shown us that a large majority of IT projects fail either in part or outright for non-technical reasons that could have been prevented with proper planning. George Spafford, Release policies set standards for rollouts

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is release management.

As part of a webcast on Understanding the ITIL Trinity of Configuration Change and Release Management, George says that:

• 29% of projects deliver on-time with expected features
• 53% are challenged (are delivered on-time without expected features)
• 18% outright fail outright

It’s not surprising that George attributes these dismal numbers to non-technical factors, including lack of project planning, poor requirements definition, not getting the right stakeholders involved,  poor communication and insufficient management oversight.

I’m frankly surprised that the number of projects that deliver on-time with expected features is so high.  I would have guessed…3%.