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This topic outlines common scenarios where Release Orchestration helps teams model, schedule, and execute releases with clear visibility.

Micro Service Releases​

Challenge​

Coordinating releases across multiple microservices that have dependencies on each other, requiring careful sequencing and coordination.

Solution​

Use a single process with phases, activities, and dependencies to coordinate the release across services.

Example​

A banking application requires coordinated releases of:

  • Payment service
  • Account service
  • Notification service
  • API gateway

Model the release as one process, add pipeline activities for each service deployment, and use dependencies to control order.

Scheduled Releases​

Challenge​

Managing recurring releases on a regular cadence (weekly, monthly, quarterly) with consistent processes.

Solution​

Use release groups and the Release Calendar to model business cadence (for example, weekly releases).

Example​

A SaaS product releases new features every two weeks. Create a release group with a recurring cadence, link it to the process, and open a release from the calendar to pre-execute it and provide inputs.

Compliance and Audit Requirements​

Challenge​

Meeting regulatory requirements for financial services, healthcare, or other regulated industries that require detailed audit trails and compliance controls.

Solution​

Capture approvals/sign-offs using manual activities and use traceability to link what was executed in a release.

Example​

A healthcare application must demonstrate:

  • Who approved each release
  • When approvals were given
  • What changes were included
  • Rollback procedures documented

Model a QA sign-off as a manual activity, record sign-off inputs during execution, and use the release execution history as audit evidence.

Cross-Team Coordination​

Challenge​

Coordinating releases that involve multiple teams (development, QA, operations, security) with different schedules and priorities.

Solution​

Assign owners to phases and activities and use notifications to bring the right owners in when input is required.

Example​

A release requires:

  • Development team: Code changes
  • QA team: Testing and validation
  • Security team: Security review
  • Operations team: Deployment

Model each group of work as a phase, assign owners, and rely on “on hold / input required” notifications when manual input or sign-off is needed.

Complex Deployment Pipelines​

Challenge​

Managing releases that involve multiple environments, complex validation steps, and conditional logic.

Solution​

Use phase and activity dependencies to model parallel and sequential execution across phases and environments.

Example​

A release process includes:

  • Development environment
  • Integration testing
  • Staging environment
  • User acceptance testing
  • Production deployment
  • Post-production validation

Model each stage as a phase and connect them with dependencies (for example, UAT depends on Staging, Production depends on UAT).

Emergency Releases​

Challenge​

Managing urgent releases (hotfixes, security patches) that need to bypass normal processes while maintaining control and documentation.

Solution​

Use a dedicated process for emergency workflows (for example, fewer phases with explicit manual sign-off).

Example​

A critical security vulnerability requires:

  • Immediate assessment
  • Fast-track approval
  • Emergency deployment
  • Post-deployment validation
  • Documentation for audit

Release Rollback​

Challenge​

Managing rollback scenarios when releases fail or cause issues, requiring coordinated reversal across multiple systems.

Solution​

Model rollback as phases and activities in your release process so it’s executed consistently when needed.

Example​

A production release causes issues:

  • Automatic rollback trigger
  • Coordinated rollback across services
  • Validation of rollback success
  • Root cause analysis

Release Metrics and Reporting​

Challenge​

Tracking release metrics, success rates, and performance across multiple releases to identify improvement opportunities.

Solution​

Use the release execution history and traceability data to understand what ran and how releases performed over time.

Example​

Organizations need to track:

  • Release frequency
  • Success rates
  • Time to production
  • Rollback frequency
  • Approval cycle times

Real-World Use Cases​

Coordinated Multi-Service Releases​

Orchestrate releases involving multiple microservices, enabling upstream dependencies, each with its own pipeline, ensuring all are deployed in the correct order with required approvals.

Feature Flag Rollouts​

Model the process from feature development to gradual enablement and GA, tracking every step and approval.

Wave Deployments​

Release to risk-taking customers first, then to the broader user base, with full traceability and rollback support.

Centralized Release Calendar​

Track all in-flight and completed releases, with drill-down into phases and activities.

Incident Response and Rollback​

Instantly identify which commits, artifacts, and tests are in a deployment, enabling rapid rollback and root cause analysis.

Managing the Entire Lifecycle of Software Delivery​

Plan the release starting from infrastructure provisioning, building the artifact for the release, validating the build, running security functions, and deploying to production in waves.