Change & release management in a SharePoint Environment

Question

• How do you handle change & release management in SharePoint?
• Do you have a registry of installed solutions,form templates, etc?
• Do you documentyour installations with a tool or by hand?
• Where do you keep a backup of installed software?
• Do you keep previous versions as part of your dev > test > prod cycles?
• Do you use a source control tool to manage versions of installed binaries?
• Any tips to make sure you can survive disaster when it strikes other than backing up your farm?

Answer 1

What we do is install our solutions during a fixed window (monday mornings at 7am for us) each week.

The developer drops the TESTED solution (.wsp) into a folder that's named with the next planned install date on our app server. He then makes an entry into a sharepoint list we have setup that details what needs to be done (upgrade or install), what the new features or fixes are, and on which scheduled install date he would like it installed. The admin can then go in on monday morning and do the installs for that week. If there are problems, he backs it out and updates the list with details. If it's successful, he updates and "closes" the item.

So not only do we have a list showing what happened and when, we also have a folder structure with all of the previously installed and updated solutions. We also keep all solution source code in Visual Source Safe obviously.

So far this has worked ok, but we're pretty new at Sharepoint and are still learning.

Dana

Answer 2

We're relatively new to this too.
We do our releases on Wednesday nights after 6pm.

•How do you handle change & release management in SharePoint?
All changes need to be authorised through a process which includes all key stakeholders.
This includes relevant documentation, which is linked to source code.
This goes through a random audit once a year, too.

•Do you have a registry of installed solutions,form templates, etc?
Yes, we use a wiki (On different servers to Sharepoint) which is kept up to date.

•Do you document your installations with a tool or by hand?
By hand. (Although we build wsp files.)

•Where do you keep a backup of installed software?
On the farm, in a different site, and on a specialised backup platform.
(This is all automated.)

•Do you keep previous versions as part of your dev > test > prod cycles?
Yes

•Do you use a source control tool to manage versions of installed binaries?
Yes, svn.

•Any tips to make sure you can survive disaster when it strikes other than backing up your farm?
Try and build resilience and failover systems into your architecture from the beginning.
Back up the farm, back up site collections, try and document everything, and pray.