Planning milestone - Planning and scheduling the release request

After a release request is approved at the Planning Approval phase, the release coordinator must plan the details associated with the release.

Planning the release request

Plan for the following important details:

• Set the release request's status to Planning, and review the planned dates.
• Estimate the time the project will take.
• Estimate any applicable downtime associated with the release request.
• Register an available or unavailable time segment to perform the release.
• Assess the risks and impact of the release request.
• Specify the business justification for the release (if this was not already done when the release request was created).
• Create your plans.
• Calculate the costs associated with the release request.
• Submit the release request for approval.
  Approvers require this information to be able to decide whether to approve or reject the release request.

To plan and schedule the release request

1. Open the release request at the Planning In Progress status.
2. Open the Calendar.

   1. Perform one of the following actions:

      When using the Best Practice view	When using the Classic view
      Choose Quick Action > View Calendar.	Choose Quick Links > View Calendar.

   2. Select how many days' worth of requests and business events to show.
   3. Select Release Requests to view release requests in the calendar.

   4. Select the requests and business events for a specific day. 

3. Close the Change Calendar when you are finished.
   For more information, see Using the Calendar.
4. Register available or unavailable time segments for your business event, operational categorization, or CI.
   For more information, see Using Schedule Assist to search for available times.
5. Click the Date/System tab in the Best Practice view or Dates tab in the Classic view.
   
   
   When planning a release request, you use this tab to track the scheduled, actual, and deployment start and end dates of releases.
6. Revise the start and end dates as needed.

7. Perform one of the following actions:

   When using the Best Practice view	When using the Classic view
   Review the Business Justification field on the Release form.	Click the Classification tab, and then review the business justification.

   For more information, see Specifying the business justification.

8. (Optional)Perform one of the following actions:

   When using the Best Practice view	When using the Classic view
   Choose Links > Financials.	Click the Financials tab.

   You can calculate the costs associated with the change request.
   For more information, see Close Down milestone - Completing release requests.

9. Save your work.
10. Use the Process Status Flow area to move the release request from the Planning In Progress status to the Build Approval phase.
    The release must be approved before it can move forward.
    For more information, see Build milestone - Building a controlled environment for the release.