Deploy an App
Suggested Template(s): DeployApp/tmailinc.com, RollbackAppDeploy/tmailinc.com, ReleaseNotes/tmailinc.com, ReleaseNotification/tmailinc.com
TMail Capabilities Used: Template, Form, Non-spoofable Identity, Authoritative Complete Audit Trail, Tracking Number TMails, Non-spoofable Identity
App Deployment is a critical process that involves Engineering, DevOps, Customer Support and QA. With a Template like (DeployApp/tmailinc.com) it easy to manage the whole deployment process including Requesting a Deploy, Managing the State of the Deploy, Doing Schema Migrations (if any), Smoke Testing the Deployed App, Capturing Release Notes, Capturing Immediate Feedback. During the Deploy all the key parties can participate in discussions in the Deployment TMail.
Using TMail for App Deploys can also meet compliance requirements like Sarbanes Oxley, by capturing all changes in an authoritative audit trail and requiring approvals at various points from various individuals.
Concurrently, a ReleaseNotification TMail can inform customers of an upcoming release, let them know the release is in progress and let them know the release is done. This ReleaseNotification TMail can act as a channel to discuss Beta period issues.
A state machine (happy path) for a ReleaseNotification could be
RELEASE PLANNED->BETA STARTED->BETA ENDED->CUSTOMER ACCEPTANCE->DEPLOYMENT STARTED->DEPLOYMENT DONE->POST-DEPLOY-REVIEW->CLOSED
Once this is done, a Release Notification process whereby customers are informed about the new release can also be done through TMail. The ReleaseNotification
Organizations can easily create custom Templates (say DeployApp/acme.com) which capture the specifics of their Deployment Process. For example, Acme’s DeployApp template could have specific approvals that are required for giving a go-ahead on the Deployment to meet their compliance requirements. Or if an App has multiple targets (for example, a packaged software app), this could be another variation.
A related process that could be easily managed through TMail would be a Disaster Recovery Failover process.
