Release Time
April 15, 2017Release time will never go quite as planned or be stress free. The goal is to get as close as possible to that. Let’s go through some of the “don’ts.”
- Don’t wait until the day of release to do a practice run. Ideally, you should do a couple of these starting at least a week before the release.
- Don’t assume the App Store or Google Play will make your app available in a timely fashion.
- Don’t let any stakeholders see the app for the first time with anything less than two weeks before the release. Ideally they should get progress previews throughout development including one release candidate at least a month before release.
- Don’t tolerate last second feature requests.
- Don’t necessarily fix last second bugs. If they’re low impact (copy updates) or of high severity (crashes), then by all means. If they require large changes or rewrites, save them for an update if they don’t seriously impact usability. Regressions at this stage are serious business.
- Don’t release when tired after last second fixes or updates. Proceed with the release when the team is fresh and focused.
I’ve experienced all of the above and they make for morale-killing releases and often lead to mistakes and frustrations by all parties.
