Scheduling releases

Deployment Start Date

For the Deployment milestone, provide the date when the release starts to be deployed to the IT infrastructure.

Deployment End Date

For the Deployment milestone, provide the date when the release finishes deploying to the IT infrastructure.

Requested Availability Date

For the Planning milestone, provide the date and time when the release should be available.

Target Date

The target date is the date by when the release must be completed, according to the applicable service level target. Alternatively, the target date can be a date that is agreed to on an ad hoc basis, per release.

On the Date/System tab, this field is read-only and is automatically set to the target date and time selected on the release form.

Completed Date

This field is read-only and is automatically set to the current date and time when the status of the release is set to Completed.

Scheduled Start Date

For the Initiate milestone, use this field to specify the date and time at which the release implementation is scheduled to start (the moment at which the release is planned to be set to the status Work in Progress).

Scheduled End Date

For the Initiate milestone, use this field to specify the date and time at which the release implementation is scheduled to be completed (the moment at which the release is planned to be set to the status Closed).

Important: Scheduled start date and end date values cannot be modified when the release is awaiting approval.

Actual Start Date

For the Deployment milestone, provide the date for when work started on the release.

Actual End Date

For the Deployment milestone, provide the date for when work ended for the release.

Register unique business events for releases

1. In the navigation pane of the Release form, choose Advanced > Time Segments > Business Event.
2. On the Search Business Event/Location Definition dialog box, click New.
3. On the Business Event/Location Definition dialog box, define a unique time segment for the business event or categorization.
4. Click Save.
5. Click Add to create a time segment.
6. In the Description field on the Business Time Segment dialog box, enter a description for the time segment.
7. In the Availability field, select Available or Unavailable.
8. In the Level field, select a level of 10 or higher.
9. In the Duration Type field, select One time (which generates a single occurrence of the time segment) or Recurring (which cannot span multiple days, but must be scheduled within a 24-hour period).
10. Enter the starting and ending dates and times for the duration of the time segment.
11. Click Save, and then click Finish.

For more information, see:

• Registering time segments
• Registering unique business events and operational categorizations
• Understanding server time, time zones, and time segments

Registering CI time segments for releases

1. In the navigation pane of the Release form, choose Advanced > Time Segments > Configuration Item (CI).
2. In the CI Advanced Search form, enter the information necessary to search for a CI and then click Search.
3. Select a CI from the search results.
4. Click Explore CI to view a CI and its relationship in a tree structure.
5. Select the CI.
6. In the Registration for Shared Time Segment dialog box, click Add.
7. In the Description field on the Business Time Segment dialog box, enter a description for the time segment.
8. In the Availability field, select Available or Unavailable.
9. In the Level field, select a level of 10 or higher.
10. In the Duration Type field, select One time (which generates a single occurrence of the time segment) or Recurring (which cannot span multiple days, but must be scheduled within a 24-hour period). If you select Recurring, you must specify the recurrence.
11. Enter the starting and ending dates and times for the duration of the time segment.
12. Click Save to associate the time segment to the CI, and then click Finish.

For more information, see:

• Registering time segments
• Registering time segments for CIs - Creating a blackout schedule
• Understanding server time, time zones, and time segments

Use Schedule Assist to search for available times

1. Open the release request.
2. Click the Dates tab.
3. Click the Schedule Assist icon.
4. Define any time segments needed for the CIs.
5. Click Find Next Available Time.
6. Click Schedule Time Segment.
7. On the Associate Time Segment to CIs dialog box, use the following steps to associate CIs to time segments.
8. Select the CI to associate the time segment to.
9. Enter a description of the time segment.
10. Click Create Time Segment.
11. Click Next.
12. Enter the scheduled start date and end date.
13. Click Next.
14. Save the change request.

For more information, see Using Schedule Assist to search for available times