Common use of Release Control Clause in Contracts

Release Control. 1. The Contractor should coherently group software changes into staged, planned releases. 2. Release control shall ensure that Contractor software released from the development environment is adequately specified in terms of documentation, testing and quality. 3. The release control procedure used by the Contractor shall address: • Configuration management: Management of the resources used to control acceptance of new/changed software into the application libraries. Such configuration management needs to permit regression back to any previous build release. It should be possible to determine the modification state of a particular software component in any new release. This principle similarly applies to hardware changes. • Document Management: Generation of release notes and document updates for the configuration controlled items. Ref: INMARSAT GLOBALISED VOICE Issue: Draft V2.8h Date: Page: 59 of 81 Inmarsat Globalised Voice Project 06-4318 Statement of Work • Testing: Ensuring that new/changed functions are individually tested then regression tested within the complete release using a representative test environment. • Production: Generation of release media or hardware components for site installation. • Installation instructions: Producing appropriate and documented installation guidelines to the host sites which will, in case of unforeseen problems, allow the staff, in a reasonable time scale, to regress to the previous release. • Certification: Ensuring that the site configurations are compatible with the new software or hardware release, in terms of configuration item compatibility and operating system parameters. 4. The type of a release shall be mutually agreed between the Contractor and nominated Inmarsat representative(s). 5. The type of release shall be categorised as: • Routine: Where installation procedures are provided with the release. In this event, each release represents a localised, low risk change rectifying a well defined problem.