Every modern day business needs software to ensure the management of its activities. Installing and maintaining applications on your various workstations is sometimes difficult. To limit downtime and bugs, it’s therefore necessary to follow a rigorous process for managing the release of your software. How should you go about it? Lemon Learning explains the 5 steps you need to successfully deploy software within your company.
Deployment planning
Plan your software deployment project down to the last detail. Great planning is essential to the success of your production processes, especially when it comes to deploying applications. You need to create software packages and thoroughly test them for functionality. Without thorough organization, you risk unanticipated errors throughout the deployment. It’s important to involve the stakeholders of the development team in the software deployment process through consultations. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and can contribute effectively to the deployment project.
Whether it’s an upgrade or a first-time installation, there are several ways to plan your deployment process. Organize a global meeting including a representative from each team (software users, CIOs, decision-makers, etc.) and gain their support on the software version, its features and application. You might also be required to write a business case (opportunity study).
Planning each step of the deployment process will help to define the tasks required to implement the project. You also need to create a deployment schedule to ensure that the installation process meets time constraints and milestones.
Preparation of the environment
In IT, the environment is defined as all the system software and equipment necessary to the performance of an application. Preparing the environment is therefore an essential step in the deployment of your software. This phase offers companies and their teams the opportunity to prepare the necessary infrastructure (computers, data center, servers, software solutions, etc.) to support the various applications.
They will be able to make the necessary adjustments to optimize the performance of the deployed software. Preparing the company’s IT environment ensures every element of the application is compliant and can be put into production. Through this step, you will be able to choose appropriate software deployment tools to complete your project.
Testing and validation
During the test and validation stage, use the software in a simulation environment to identify its bugs and confirm its functionality. The tests can be carried out by you or your collaborator, but it is wise to gain a second opinion from your collaborator before deployment. At the end of the testing phase, you will understand how to correct or optimize the performance of the application.
The tasks to be performed in this project will depend on the complexity of the deployment process. Logically, they can be time-consuming if the changes are significant. Here are some examples of operations to perform to assess the effectiveness of the application :
- Perform software usability testing
- Reconstruct each software scenario (interactions with users and systems, services and equipment)
- Improve software integrations
- Amend or limit any software risks
- Detect software bugs…
Any issues you identified should be corrected by members of the deployment team. Upon completion, you should also perform software regression testing. These will allow you to check the functionality of the application again after the changes have been implemented. Only then will the software be validated and deployment can begin.
Gradual deployment
Once quality checks have been completed and the software approved, you should consider a gradual roll-out. The production release is done in a real production environment (as opposed to the simulation). It is therefore recommended to perform more tests to evaluate the functionality of the software within it. For this purpose, you can analyze the software integrations and make the necessary corrections to the application to improve its performance. Concretely, the progressive deployment of a software is carried out according to different phases:
- Development of the software in real environment
- Carrying out conformity and reliability tests
- Analysis of software key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Gradual implementation of software integrations (updates, maintenance, etc.)
Any changes to the software must be communicated to the members of the deployment team, in this case the end users. The editor can assist you throughout the production process. It is still necessary to have good web accessibility and to put in place an effective strategy to guarantee the security of your network. Please take the necessary steps to protect your business information.
Training and user support
Once implemented, continue to regularly monitor and manage your software to guarantee consistent results long term. This requires the end user training in the application. In particular, there are various software deployment tools that can help you with your project. Those that run on the cloud are increasingly in demand, as they promote the automation of your processes.
Any company looking to save time during software deployment can benefit from Lemon Learning. Implemented in 2014, it is now an essential tool in the adoption and configuration of software (CRM, ERP, HRIS, etc.). The integrable application offers you interactive guides and built-in contextual tutorials that help you craft effective deployment settings.
The tool’s interface is extremely easy to use. The Lemon Learning solution also helps you analyze the performance of your business software, making it possible to implement strategies to optimize their operation. Adopt our tool to deploy your software without worrying. We guarantee quality technical support.
You benefit from an attractive reduction in your face-to-face training costs and automated content updates, giving you the opportunity to save time. Do not hesitate to contact us to request a quote and develop your project together.
