Zero-Freeze: Optimizing eCommerce by achieving Release Excellence
The evolution of eCommerce can, for several reasons, be likened to humankind’s tryst with taking to the skies as a means to travel to faraway lands. It took a mere 11 years since the first successful flight to launch the first-ever commercial aircraft.
Despite the risks and dangers, there has been no looking back. Instead, careful but ambitious efforts have been made to ensure air journeys are not only safe and error-free but also pleasant and efficient.
The rise of eCommerce has also been equally meteoric.
Despite early fears of traffic congestions, poor shopping experience and security lapses, eCommerce has grown rapidly, not only in numbers but also in terms of the possibilities that allow for a delightful shopping experience from the comfort of our homes.
A successful eCommerce business stays successful by ensuring three things- [a] the stability and availability of their ecosystem rarely suffer
[b] they are agile enough to release quick fixes for any disruptions that may arise and
[c] their tech innovators have the means to constantly inject new releases into the system to improve the system for the benefit of its consumers.
Stability and Innovation can often be at loggerheads. “Is it better to not tamper with what isn’t broken?”. “At this stage of the calendar year, are we willing to risk introducing these features and risk our stability?”. These questions are often asked. This is why an organization’s Release Strategy plays a crucial role in determining its eCommerce success.
In the last two stories, we have read how every eCommerce platform must deal with the peak season and special events that occur in a calendar year. Given their revenue-generating capacity, it is not uncommon for orgs to institute a release freeze sometime before the peak season commences. This freeze may vary from a couple of weeks to a full month, depending upon the nature of the peak season and the robustness of the platform in question. Said freezes cause a significant impact on the tech operations of the organization.
“While consumers experience eCommerce as a whole, underneath the visible layer is a complex array of interconnected sub-systems that enable the consumer’s journey. Different sub-systems are helmed by different teams, who despite the interconnectedness tend to have differing goals, philosophies and tend to work in silos”, says a release management specialist based on his experience with firms across the industry.
While it may seem prudent to opt for release-freezes and play it safe, the freedom to play despite the turbulent weather offers a much greater reward. It is a journey that requires a strong plan, open communication and meticulous checks. It starts with putting in place, a standardized process that is followed across teams and units. “Bringing everyone on the same page” is crucial to ensure releases happen seamlessly and with limited or no release freeze instances.
Now, how exactly can such a standardized process for release management be put in place? Here are some guiding principles that can be adopted:
- Planning:
Like every other activity, release excellence requires adequate planning, which should ideally start towards the beginning of the year to achieve optimum benefits. Engage with partners early on to create a good understanding by exchanging pertinent information. The sooner we create a schedule detailing the releases planned, the better prepared our teams are and the easier it is to track progress. Early in the journey, following a guideline such as not having a release on Fridays or weekends when the site traffic could be higher than usual can also reduce the fears of unwanted disruption.
2. Communication:
Organize workshops and brainstorming sessions with relevant stakeholders to bring in transparency and greater alignment between the teams. Whenever deployments are done, proper documentation and communication of the changes implemented needs to be done after deployment. Communicating with the teams regularly about the upcoming releases leads to them being better informed and acting judiciously.
3. Rigorous Testing:
Given how complex eCommerce setups are, it is important to go above and beyond while testing the features and functionality that are being rolled out. The planning phase of every release must include efforts to identify any cross-dependencies with other platforms or applications to ensure that enhancements in one area do not have an adverse impact in any other area of the overall system. A thorough testing procedure is vital to release excellence.
4. Regular Monitoring and Tracking:
Weekly check-ins are an effective way to follow up with the teams and ensure different stakeholders are in sync before a release. Building a high visibility dashboard that helps monitor your releases against a defined set of metrics or criteria can serve as a tracking mechanism that can provide us a measure of success for every release while helping us determine possible faults.
5. Restricting Release Freeze:
Bringing in changes such as limiting hard freezes to only special campaigns and only after multiple levels of approval can ensure that teams do not overindulge in freeze before a release. A freeze can be enforced only at a determined schedule to implement this rule effectively.
6. Automation:
If the release management process is completely manual, it creates an element of redundancy and increases the overhead involved. Bringing in concepts like self-regulatory templates that could be automated and provided to teams can prevent this from happening. Not only will it reduce the possibility of redundancy but also reduce the effort involved for the stakeholders.
Transitioning from an organization where “Release-Freeze” is the norm, to one that embraces “No-Freeze” is not merely a process upheaval but also a cultural one. It helps the technology units be more agile, more innovative and allows them to play a greater role in reducing costs and increasing revenue. Moreover, a systematic release management approach would also ensure greater harmony between tech and business as it puts tech in a better position to cater to the needs of the latter.
Most importantly, to confidently adopt “No Freeze” requires a system so robust and a release management process that is so effective, that it is bound to reduce outages and vastly improve consumer experience.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and do not represent the opinion, strategy or goals of the author’s employer, organization, committee or any other group or individual.
