Create a release vehicle for an actual release to market

A release vehicle represents an actual release to market or to internal end users of software. There is a link to the release vehicles page on the program increment's Details panel (Manage Release Vehicles link next to the Release Vehicles field when viewing a PI's full details) so that a release train engineer can see everything related to the program increment in one place. Selecting Manage Release Vehicles on a PI's Details panel opens the page with release vehicles associated with that PI.

Release vehicles are sorted by date with the newest at the top of the grid. All release vehicles associated with the same PI are grouped together.

On the release vehicles page, you can use a filter option to narrow down the list of selected criteria displayed in a grid. For example, you may want to filter the list of release vehicles by an ID, a name, a PI, an owner, by dates, status, health, type, and more. Additionally, you can click a column header to sort the list.

You can view an audit log on the release vehicles page to look at all changes that happened to the release vehicle and the name of the person who made the changes.

Go Live date

When the release vehicle’s status is set to Launched, the Go Live date is automatically set for today's date. The Go Live date cannot be set before the Start date.

If the Launched status is changed to any status other than Closed or Archive, the Go Live date is cleared.

Closed/Cancelled date

When the release vehicle’s status is set to Closed or Cancelled, the Closed/Cancelled date becomes a required field and is automatically set for today’s date. You can edit it if necessary. The Closed/Cancelled date cannot be set before the Go Live date. The Closed/Cancelled date is grayed out and cannot be edited if the release vehicle’s status is not Closed or Cancelled.

If the Closed or Cancelled status is changed to any other status, the Closed/Cancelled date is cleared. 

Creating Release Vehicles

To create a release vehicle:

1. Select Program from the left menu bar.
2. Under the Program section, select Program Increments; the Program Increments page displays.
3. From the More Actions menu on the toolbar, select Release Vehicles.
4. On the toolbar (top-right of the page), click the Add Release Vehicle button.
5. In the Name box, type the name of the release vehicle.
6. Select the Status of the release vehicle:
   • Planning: A release vehicle that is being prepared for deployment.
   • In Progress: A release vehicle in the process of deployment.
   • Launched: A release vehicle that has been shipped to end users.
   • Closed: A release vehicle that has been shipped to all end users.
   • Canceled: A release vehicle that has been canceled.
   • Archive: Release vehicles with this status will not be selectable in several dropdowns in Jira Align, including in the Configuration bar.
7. Select the health of the release vehicle from the corresponding dropdown menu. The choices for the Health option depend on the status you select. When you select a status, you can see the following Health options:
   • Planning: At Risk, On Track, and On Hold
   • In Progress: At Risk, Critical / Slip, On Track, and On Hold
   • Launched: At Risk, Critical / Slip, On Track, and On Hold
   • Closed: Complete
   • Cancelled: Complete
   • Archive: Complete
8. From the Type dropdown menu, select the scope of the release vehicle. The available options are major, minor, and support.
9. Select the Start and Ship dates of the release vehicle.
10. From the Owner dropdown menu, select the owner of the release vehicle. By default, it is a name of the person creating the release vehicle.
11. From the Program Increment Shipped In dropdown menu, select the program increment the release vehicle is associated with.
12. Select the product you want to associate with this release vehicle for financial reporting services. Only products with the Active state appear here.
13. Select one or more programs which contribute to this release vehicle.
14. Select one or more teams which contribute to this release vehicle. You can choose from all teams accessible to you. This field is used so that teams can be tied to tasks on the projects they are assigned to.
15. If in Step 10 you selected a PI that belongs to any programs that are mapped to a Jira project under Jira Settings and want to synchronize this release vehicle with Jira: 
    • Select the Jira project that is associated with this release vehicle from the Jira Project dropdown menu. The list includes all Jira projects that the parent PI’s program is mapped to under Jira Settings under Administration. You will see the [Jira Project Key] name added after the release vehicle name to understand what project is working in scope of this release vehicle.
16. Click Save. Additional fields appear: Go Live Date and Closed/Cancelled Date.

Notes:

• There is also a link to the release vehicles page from the program increment' page (Program Increment page > Manage Release Vehicles link next to Release Vehicles).
• You can edit the default Type options under the Dropdowns platform settings.
• You can rename the terms Start Date, Ship Date, Go Live Date, and Closed/Cancelled Date so that they match your organization processes. You can rename the terms under Administration > Settings > Platform Terminology.
• Use the External References option on the right side of the page to add a design, compliance, approval, or other types of links to the external source. This option may be useful when linking to information specific to the release vehicle that is necessary for the external auditors who review the application releases for compliance purposes.

Click Release Vehicle Hierarchy on the right side of the slide-out panel to view the hierarchy of release vehicles in the following order:

• The name of the PI the release vehicle is associated with.
• All release vehicles sorted by the Ship date from latest to oldest.

Note: After you create a release vehicle, you can delete it by clicking the Delete button. However, if you associate a release vehicle with a work code, you cannot delete it, but you can deactivate it. You must set the release vehicle to the Complete health state to deactivate it. 

Important: Tying release vehicles to features

Important: For release vehicles to function properly within Jira Align, and specifically roadmap functionality, you must assign them to each individual feature that is to be included in the release vehicle. That is, access each feature that you want to include in the release vehicle, and add the release vehicle to the feature via the Release Vehicle field of the feature's slide-out panel. If the release vehicle does not display on the feature's slide-out panel, contact your Jira Align administrator who can add it via Details Panels Settings.