Managing plans

A software release cycle typically has multiple phases. In BMC Release Process Management (BRPM), you use plans to specify the sequence of the states and transitions, which might include several requests.

This topic consists of the following sections:

• Viewing plans
• Creating plans
• Defining projects
• Integrating with external systems

Viewing plans

In BRPM, you can view a list of all plans (software release processes) and their statuses on the Plans tab.

Creating plans

Using plans, you can efficiently organize the software release process within the framework of your organization processes. The following steps provide an overview of the process involved in creating a plan:

1. Create a plan template to structure the release plan of your software.

   Warning

   Important

   You can use the status of objects to manage the access to a plan template. All new plan templates have the default Draft state as their initial status. For more information, see Using-status-of-objects.

2. Add stages to the plan template. For example, a corporation can have stages that represent the environments, like Development, QA, and Release. You can associate a stage with a default request template.
3. Create a new plan. When you create a new plan, BRPM automatically creates an instance of the request for that stage.
4. Create a run for the plan. A run is simply a group of requests in a plan stage. Using runs, you can assemble requests from different applications and target different environments in an executable flow. You can also add or delete a request from a run and clone a run like you can clone a template. Even though requests may have been run in various states during the stage, the definitive work to do the deployment can be gathered into a run and promoted to the next plan stage.
   To use plan runs, you must create multiple requests.

To create a plan template

1. Go to Environment > Metadata > Manage Plan Templates.
2. Click Create Plan Template.
3. In the Name box, enter the name of your template.
4. In the Template type list, select the template type, and then click Create.
5. To add stages to the plan template, in the Stages section, click Add stage.
6. In the Creating Plan Stage dialog box, in the Name box, enter a stage name. For example, DEV.
   1. In the Environment type list, select the appropriate environment type. For example, Development.
      RPM uses environment types to map environments to the plan stages. 
   2. To make the stage impossible to skip during the release lifecycle, select the Required check box.

   3. To limit modification of the requests in the stage, select Protected access.

      Warning

      Note

      After you create a stage with Protected access, grant the Modify Protected Requests permission to the users who will be able to modify requests created in the stage with Protected access. Users who do not have such permission can clone protected requests, add notes in the request or its steps, change step Work Tasks, Runtime Phases, and Priority.

   4. In the Default Request Template list, select a template for a request that will be automatically created in the stage when you create a plan or release. To add multiple templates, press and hold Ctrl.

      Warning

      Note

      The Default Request Template list displays only the Released request templates.

   5. Click Create.
7. Add as many stages as needed.
8. (Optional) To make the plan template available, change its status to Pending or Released.
   For more information about the plan template states, see Using-status-of-objects.

To edit a stage in a plan template

1. Go to Environment > Metadata > Manage Plan Templates, and then click a plan for which you want to edit a stage.
2. Next to the appropriate stage, click Edit.
3. Make the required changes, and then click Update.
4. To change the order of the stages, drag a stage icon () to the appropriate position in the list of stages.

To create a plan

1. Go to the Plans tab, and then, on the right side, click Create Plan.
2. In the Plan Template list, select the required template.
3. In the Plan Name box, enter a name of the release plan.
4. In the Release Manager list, select the appropriate RPM user.
5. In the Teams list, select the required check boxes to assign the appropriate teams to the plan.
6. In the Release tag list, select the appropriate release tag for the plan.

7. In the Release Date box, select a release date.

   Warning

   Note

   If you click Edit Plan Details after you have created the plan, the release tag and the release date that you select appear as defaults. They also appear as defaults when you want to add a request to the plan.

8. In the Release Description box, enter details about the release if any.
9. Click Create.
   The newly created plan details are displayed.

To edit plan details

1. Go to the Plans tab, and then click the plan that you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Plan Details.
3. In the Editing Plan Details planName dialog box, make the required changes.
4. Click Update.

To add a route to a plan

1. Go to the Plans tab, and then click the plan to which you want to assign a route.
2. Click the Routes tab, and then, on the right side, click Assign App Route.
   
3. In the App list, select the appropriate application.

4. In the Route list, select a route, and then click Add.
   The Routes tab opens with the plan stages mapped to the application route environments.

   Warning

   Note

   Route gate constraints validate the compliance of the request environments to the plan stage route gates. Route gates are mapped to the plan stages according to the environment types of the route gate environments. You can change the default (automatic) route gate assignment to plan stages. For more information about route gates, see Managing-routes.

To assign a request to a plan

1. On the Requests tab, click the request.
2. On the request page, click expand.
3. At the bottom, click Modify Request Details.
4. Under Core Attributes, change the appropriate details, and then select the plan to assign to the request.
5. Click Update.

To view the Stages in a pipeline

You can view the pipeline for all the stages within the plan, when you create a plan using a plan template. The figure below shows the pipeline for a plan consisting of three stages:

You can now click on a particular stage in the pipeline, to filter the stages. This shows information about that particular stage only.

To view all the stages together, click on Show All.

About the pipeline:

• Compliant stages are displayed in green color.
• Non-compliant stages are displayed in red color. The stages without any route constraints are defined as non-compliant stages.
• The number are requests within a stage are displayed within parenthesis. 
• You can click on a particular stage on the pipeline to display the stage information.

You may get the following screen with no output when you click on any stage in the pipeline:

This means that the Plan Run filter is selected and the stage you selected does not include Run information. To see the contents of the selected stage:

1. Click on Show All. This will display all the stages in the pipeline.
2. Close the Plan Run filter. Now you can see the information for any stage by clicking on the stage on the pipeline.

Defining projects

You can execute requests as part of a project. Projects are constructs that contain requests, which, in turn, contain steps and procedures. You can define different types of projects and assign categories to your projects. A request can be executed as part of an activity, which, in turn, refers to a project.

Integrating with external systems

You can use RPM to perform different functions in the external systems. If you have integrations in place, you can also link your release plan to existing ticketing systems. This feature is useful when your organization has scheduled software releases at certain times and might have windows during which you release your software. The application teams submit tickets to indicate that their codes are ready.