Release engineering, frequently abbreviated as "releng", is a sub-discipline in software engineering concerned with the compilation, assembly and delivery of source code into finished products or other software components. Frequently, tracking of changes in a configuration management system or revision control system is part of the domain of the release engineer. The responsibility for creating and applying a version numbering scheme into software--and tracking that number back to the specific source files to which it applies may fall onto the release engineer. Producing or improving automation in software production is usually a goal of the release engineer. Gathering, tracking, and supplying all the tools that are required to develop and build a particular piece of software may be a release engineering task, in order to reliably reproduce or maintain software years after its initial release to customers. Software engineering (SE) is the practice of creating and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields. ... A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language compiler. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... In information technology and telecommunications, the term configuration management or configuration control has the following meanings: The management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures and test documentation of an automated information system, throughout the development and operational life... Revision control (also known as version control) is the management of multiple revisions of the same unit of information. ... A version is a state of an object or concept that varies from its previous state or condition. ...

While most software engineers, or software developers, do many or all of the above as a course of their work, in larger organizations the specialty of the release engineer can be applied to coordinate disparate source trees, projects, teams and components. This frees the developer to implement features in the software and frees quality assurance engineers to more broadly and deeply test the produced software.

The release engineer may provide software, services, or both to software engineering and software quality assurance teams. The software provided may be build tools, assembly or other reorganization scripts which take compilation output and place them into a pre-defined tree structure, and even to the authoring and creation of installers for use by test teams or by the ultimate consumer of the software. The services provided may include software build (compilation) automation, automated test integration, results reporting and production of or preparation for software delivery systems--e.g., in the form of electronic media (CDs, DVDs) or electronic software distribution mechanisms. Software engineering (SE) is the practice of creating and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields. ... Software testing is the process used to help identify the correctness, completeness, security and quality of developed computer software. ...

An often overlooked task in the software development process is the need to get software from the hands of developers into the test organization. This software is usually called a "release" or "delivery" or, even more casually, a "build" (noun, rather than verb). But in group software development, who delivers all the pieces in a co-ordinated fashion? What, exactly, is in any particular build (differing it from a previous build, at varying stages of development)? What are the processes involved in reliably reproducing the software? Large software projects, whether using agile software development or the waterfall model rely on many and frequent iterations of the build -> test -> debug -> code -> build cycle before the software project is complete. Release Engineering brings consistency, reproducibility and verifiability to the build and release cycle. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Agile software development is a conceptual framework for undertaking software engineering projects. ... The waterfall model is a software development model (a process for the creation of software) in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation), integration, and maintenance. ... Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware thus making it behave as expected. ...

Related Disciplines

• Software configuration management - Frequently, release engineering will be subsumed within Software Configuration Management, but the latter is a tool or a process used by the Release Engineer and is usually a subset of the roles and responsibilities of the typical Release Engineer.
• Software quality assurance - In many organizations, Release Engineers are members of the software quality assurance team.
• Software engineering - Release engineering is considered a specialty of Software Engineering.

Software Configuration Management (SCM) is part of configuration management (CM). ... Software testing is the process used to help identify the correctness, completeness, security and quality of developed computer software. ... Software engineering (SE) is the practice of creating and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields. ...

Related Software Projects

• CruiseControl - Free project that automates the build/release process.
• SCM4ALL - Commercial product.
• BuildForge - Commercial product.
• codefast - Commercial product.
• Parabuild - Commercial product.

CruiseControl is a framework for a continuous build process. ...

Related Books

• "Software Release Methodology" by Michael E. Bays; ISBN 0136365647.
• "Software Configuration Management" by H. Ronald Berlack; ISBN 0471530492.