You’ve finally received word from your product team that the new features they’ve been debating will be added to the upcoming release. With the design spec in hand, it’s now time for your release team and the engineers to plan for this next release.

Before you get started, you think back to previous releases and notice a couple patterns:

• The reliability of the release and the process itself doesn’t always go as smoothly as you’d like, even if previous releases have been “okay.”
• Releases often get rushed and pushed out quickly when customers are in dire need of a feature.
• When pressing product changes are needed, timelines get moved up and builds are forced out faster.

You may find yourself asking, “Am I doing releases right?!”

Relax. It’s common. Design changes happen, new priorities are raised, and engineering teams often experiment with new engineering processes.