Software Release Planning - a Model Incorporating Environmental Parameters

A software release planning can be seen from two dimensions “what to release” and “when to release”. The most crucial decision is whether or not to select a feature for implementation in the next software release. A number of software release planning models are available which considers a wide variety of factors in deciding the implementation of a feature in a release.This paper analyzes 31 release planning models and the selection factors used by these models. Most of these models use only in-project parameters in deciding on the features to be included in a release. A new release planning model incorporating a group of “environmental factors” ,which plays a crucial role in deciding the priority of features to be included in each release is then proposed .The paper emphasize the need to include environmental parameters which are parameters not directly linked to project, but influences the project from outside in planning a release.