Knowledge Base

Releases are a great way to organize the delivery of a product, and Jama allows for a great deal of configuration. Note that a Release exists on the Project level, so it cannot be used with an embedded filter or reused to another Project. Users can, however, create a filter based on whether the criteria is or is not within a Release. If you need to use an embedded filter with your Releases, refer to this article on How to Use Round Trip for Editing.


Adding, Editing and Deleting a Release
Selecting the Releases tab from the Explorer Panel will display the existing Releases as well as Unassigned, the category in which any items not in a Release will be found. To add a Release, select Add Release at the top of the Explorer Panel when this tab is selected.



Next, fill in the Name, Description (optional), and Release Date. Keep in mind that nothing will happen when the Release Date is reached — it is for reference only. The Name, Description, and Release Date can all be edited at a later time.




The Release List will be a tab within the Configure Project menu. Configure Project can be accessed from either the Project drop-down menu or the gear icon next to the Project title. Here, admins and project managers are also able to add a Release as well as Edit, Delete, and Archive.  If a Release has active items, that Release will be unable to be deleted. If a Release is Archived, it will keep a version of the items within the Release. The items themselves will be free to be moved to other Releases or Unassigned while still being in the archived Release.




Release Explorer Settings
The gear icon next to Add Release leads to the Release Explorer Settings. Here, users can set default settings or their own personal settings. The purpose of this menu is to change what is viewable within the Release Explorer.



Among the settings that can be customized are the types of items viewable in the Release Explorer; whether to show Item IDs, Global IDs, Archived Releases, Downstream Relationships; whether to filter certain statuses; and whether to leave notes about the releases.



To finalize the settings, select Apply.


Adding Items to a Release
There are a few ways to add items to a Release; keep in mind that an item can belong to only one Release at a time. To keep a record of which version of an item existed in which Release, create a Baseline based on a particular release. 




To add an existing item to a Release, locate the Release field of the item in Single Item View or in List Vie, then select the desired release name from the drop-down menu. Make sure the field is configured as visible. Instructions on how to ensure that can be found here. You can also Batch Update the Release field or update them via a Round Trip export and import.

Right-clicking on the Release in the Explorer Tree will allow you to create a New Item within that Release. When the Item is created, specify where that Item will live (in a Set, Folder, etc.), and it will be instantly connected to that Release.





Sending a Release to Review
You can send the contents of a Release out for Review. Simply right click on the target Release and select Send for Review.

All of the items within that release will be sent to a Review in the Review Center. This will take you through the normal steps of setting up a Review and result in a fully functioning review with the contents of the Release.


Want a deeper dive involving Releases? A Jama consultant covered this topic in an “Ask Jama” session about Release Management.



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