So, you have database changes—either schema or data changes—that need to be implemented and rolled out across various environments. One approach could be to connect directly to each database server and execute scripts. However, you might not—and indeed, probably should not—have direct read/write access to certain environments like beta or production. Additionally, consider if a client posed the following questions; would you be able to easily respond? What is the state of the database in our Production environment?

Overview Throughout the lifetime of your project, you will most likely wonder (or will be asked) the following: what is currently released in Production or your other environments? what features or bug fixes are slotted for the next release? are there any breaking changes?! This is where a process of release management comes in. The goal of release management is to communicate what has changed and what developers and users can expect upon the release of changes.