This documentation supports the 22.1 version of BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management.To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

Planning and scheduling release requests

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

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Plan for the following important details. Approvers require this information to be able to decide whether to approve or reject the release request.

  • 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.


To plan and schedule the release request

  1. Open the release request at the Planning In Progress status.
  2. Open the Calendar.
  3. Select Quick Action > View Calendar.
  4. Select how many days of requests and business events to display.
  5. Select Release Requests to view the release requests in the calendar.
  6. Select the requests and business events for a specific day. 
  7. Close the Change Calendar.
    For more information, see Scheduling-changes-by-using-the-Calendar.
  8. Register available or unavailable time segments for your business event, operational categorization, or CI.
    For more information, see Managing-time-segment-availability-based-on-business-event-or-operational-category.
  9. Click the Date/System tab. 

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    When planning a release request, you use this tab to track the scheduled, actual, and deployment start and end dates of releases.
  10. Revise the start and end dates.
  11. Review the Business Justification field on the Release form.
    For more information, see Creating-a-release-request.
  12. (Optional) Select Links > Financials.
    You can calculate the costs associated with the change request.
    For more information, see Closing-the-release.
  13. Click Save.
  14. Use the Process Status Flow 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 Building-a-controlled-environment-for-the-release.


To schedule the end and start date of a release

For the Initiate milestone, in the Release form, use the Date/System tab to add the scheduled start and end dates for the release. These dates can also be revised for the Planning milestone. During deployment, use this tab to track the actual and deployment start and end dates for the release.

The following information describes each of these date fields on the Release form:

Field

Description

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 deployment to the IT infrastructure.

Requested Availability Date

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

Target Date

Provide 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

Skip this field. 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, provide 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, provide 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.

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You can use the Schedule Assist tool to identify possible conflicts associated with releases. You can search for windows of opportunity that your release request can be scheduled around. The Schedule Assist tool helps you search for available deployment times for the release request based on global business events and CI availability. When you create a release request that modifies a CI, for example, you must upgrade a server, you can schedule a time segment for the CI that shows it is unavailable to the rest of the support staff. If another member of the support staff wants that CI to be available, they should schedule their own release in a different time segment.

Important

The following processes are essentially the same for Change Management and Release Management, with one exception for the Schedule Assist tool. The Release form shows you the CIs related to the changes in the release manifest. In Change Management, the CIs that are directly related to the change are displayed.


To register unique business events for releases

  1. In the navigation pane of the Release form, select 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 and click Save.
  4. Click Add to create a time segment.
  5. In the Description field on the Business Time Segment dialog box, enter a description for the time segment.
  6. In the Availability field, select Available or Unavailable.
  7. In the Level field, select a level of 10 or higher.
  8. 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).
  9. Enter the starting and ending dates and times for the duration of the time segment.
  10. Click Save, and then click Finish.

For more information, see the following topics:


To register CI time segments for releases

  1. In the navigation pane of the Release form, select 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. From the search results, select a CI.
  4. Click Explore CI to view a CI and its relationship in a tree structure and select the CI.
  5. In the Registration for Shared Time Segment dialog box, click Add.
  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). If you select Recurring, you must specify the recurrence.
  10. Enter the starting and ending dates and times for the duration of the time segment.
  11. Click Save to associate the time segment to the CI, and then click Finish.

For more information, see the following topics:


To 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.
    1. Select the CI to associate the time segment to.
    2. Enter a description of the time segment.
    3. Click Create Time Segment and click Next.
  8. Enter the scheduled start date and end date and click Next.
  9. Save the change request.

 

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