Re: Different name for "Release Notice" document?

Subject: Re: Different name for "Release Notice" document?
From: Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 14:32:10 -0400


On Thursday 17 October 2002 13:19, John Posada wrote:
> Are you talking about the "book" that is signed off
> by the customer, acknowledging that the deliverable
> is done and I'm ready to receive the invoice?

No, it's a similar, but lesser thing for internal
purposes. Or, to put it another way, it's like saying
that PLM (Product Line Management) has conspired
with Production to satisfy some of the endless wants
and needs of Customers. PLM makes a Requirements
Specification and hands it to Engineering (which
includes Development and also Product Verification).

The Requirements doc includes all the "must haves",
the "really want to haves" and the "it would be nice
to haves", listed in their dozens and hundreds as
Requirements (R1, R2,...R97,...) and each tagged as
a Priority i, Priority ii, or Priority iii, where all
of the "i" requirements have the same rank, all of the
"ii" items have the same rank, etc.

Engineering makes a Design Spec, which says:
a) which of the Requirements they are prepared
to tackle (and maybe even deliver) in the
alloted time

b) how (at a high level) they will implement the
requirements that they've agreed to deliver.

Some negotiation ensues, and then PLM signs
of on Engineering's "what we're gonna do" document.

Engineering developers make busy motions for
some weeks or months (incidentally churning out
some more docs of the "how we're doing it" or
"how we've done it" flavor).
Sometime in the process, PV takes the Requirement
and Design specs and works up a massive and
fairly complete Test Cases Document, which is
a statement of what they are going to be integrating
and testing, in order to verify that the product
a) works/isn't-fatally-broken
b) satisfies the agreed-upon requirements.

In the meantime, Configuration Manglement is
collaborating with PLM in the creation of a full
and complete set of Bills of Materials for the
upcoming release.

So, hardware freeze and code-freeze are declared
(with more or less crossing of fingers...) and PV
(which has been doing trial dry runs and get-acquainted
testing with the early pre-release builds) prepares
to receive "the real thing". Development takes
whatever they've cobbled together up to that point,
and creates a formal build, called a Release Candidate.
PV sets it up, from scratch, and tests the crap out of
it, religiously checking off tasks and items from the
test documents (which were built from the Test Cases).
Toward the end, if it looks like we've got a winner, PV
also verifies the BoMs.

All this, plus some other stray bits of paper, is
gathered into a formal document that the PV Manager
currently calls her "Release Notice Document". She and
other people (a Development rep, a PLM rep, and
I believe, a Production rep) sign it.

Once that doc is signed, the product is released for
Production to begin filling orders.

So, it's only a 6-pound document. Sales Dept. keeps
the customer requirements and contracts in another
drawer.

Anyway, one of *my* documents, that goes out the door
with the Install Guide and other Customer docs, is
"Release Notes". But since "Release Notes" is somehow
easier to say than "Release Notice", many people in
the company end up saying (and writing) "Release
Notes", when they meant to refer, not to my customer
Release Notes, but to the PV manager's "Release Notice"
summary/accountability document.

This has lead to confusion and misunderstanding in
the past. I don't want to change the title of the
customer-facing "Release Notes", because it is a
rather standard and expected title... unless somebody
else has a juicy title I can use instead... so I'm
trying to find a replacement title for the "Release
Notice", which is a title that just sorta popped up
within the company a couple of years ago.

S'a'right?

/kevin


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RE: Different name for "Release Notice" document?: From: John Posada

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