Release management takes the features you planned through phases to a shipped release, and tells each customer when something they asked for ships. It's included in the Max plan. On Team and Pro, the Release menu shows what Max adds.
How the pieces fit
- A release belongs to a product and has a start date and a release date. Features join a release from Feature Builder or the feature's Release field.
- A release runs through phases in order, such as Plan, Build, Test, and Launch. One phase is current at a time.
- Each phase has gates: checks that must pass before the phase can be promoted, such as "No requirements in draft" or "No blocked release tasks".
- Milestones mark dates that matter, such as a feature freeze or general availability.
- Release tasks are the work to ship the release, each with an owner, a due date, and a phase.
Releases
Choose Release in the top bar to see every active release with its phases, which phase is current, and whether its latest gate checks passed. Upcoming milestones lists the dates ahead.
Create a release
Choose New release on the Releases page. Give it a name, a product, a start date, and a release date. The release copies its phases and their gates from your default template, with the dates spread between the start and release dates. You can change any phase's dates and gates afterwards.
Owners, admins, and release managers set the default template in Settings, Release defaults: the phases in order, how many days each takes, its color, and its exit gates.
Release Workbench
Choose Release Workbench in the left rail, then pick a product and a release. The Workbench shows the current phase, the days left in it, the latest gate check, the release date, a timeline of phases and milestones, the release notes, and the gates for the current phase.
- Start release makes the first phase current.
- Run gate checks checks every gate on the current phase against the release's records and shows each result as it finishes.
- Override check lets a failed gate be skipped for this phase. A note is required, and Sygnyfy records who overrode it and when. If you run the checks again, the override is kept.
- Promote to the next phase is available when every gate has passed or been overridden, or the phase has no gates. On the last phase it becomes Complete release.
Open a release to see its Features, Customer reports, Phases (with each phase's gates, tasks, and milestones), and Tasks grouped by phase. A blocked task needs a reason, and the Tasks tab shows which gate it is failing.
Gates
A gate checks the records of one kind that belong to the release: features, requirements, needs, evidence, release tasks, milestones, phases, or the release itself. For example, "every feature is Ready to build or later", or "no release task is Blocked". Sygnyfy starts you with seven gates. To create your own, choose Manage gates on a phase, then New gate, and preview which records match before you save.
Release Calendar
Choose Release Calendar in the left rail to see phases and milestones by week, month, or quarter, in each release's color. Filter by strategy, product, or release. Completed releases are hidden unless you choose All releases.
Release notes
Choose Regenerate on the Workbench. The Release Notes Agent writes the notes from the features in the release, the needs they address, and the customer evidence behind them, with a section per feature and who asked for it. You see the current and the regenerated notes side by side, and nothing changes until you choose Accept regenerated notes. You can also Edit the notes yourself.
At the same time, the agent drafts a customer report for each customer whose evidence led to a feature in the release.
Tell customers what shipped
When a release is completed, Sygnyfy closes the loop:
- Every customer with evidence linked to a need that a feature in the release addresses gets a note on their record.
- Their customer report moves from Draft to Final.
Nothing is emailed automatically. On the release's Customer reports tab, preview exactly what each customer will receive, edit the greeting, intro, and closing, and choose Send to a customer for one report, or Send final reports for all of them. Reports go to the customer's Contact email, from your organization's name, and replies come back to the person who sent them. Release managers and customer managers can send reports.
Each email has an unsubscribe link. Sygnyfy skips customers who have unsubscribed and addresses that bounced or were marked as spam, and the Customer reports tab says why. Changing a customer's contact email clears a bounce.
The release agent
Every morning, the Release Manager Agent checks each release in progress: it runs the gate checks, flags a phase that is at risk of missing its end date, emails the owners of blocked or overdue work once a day, and leaves a note on the release. When every gate passes, it proposes promotion in Insights. If you turn on Auto-promote for a release, it promotes the phase itself.
Choose Ask the release agent on the Workbench to ask about a release, such as "What is blocking this phase?" or "Which customers are waiting on this release?". The agent reads the release's gates, tasks, requirements, and dates, and can't change anything. As with every AI feature, personal data is replaced with aliases first.
Who can do what
Creating releases, editing phases, assigning gates, running checks, overriding, promoting, and regenerating notes need the Release manager role, or an owner or admin. The owner of a release task can update their own task. See Team and roles.