You are here:
Manage Releases with Linked Records for IT Services
This example shows how a release manager associates incidents, problems, and change requests to scheduled and emergency releases, and tracks them on the IT Service Calendar.
Required Editions
| Available in: Lightning Experience |
| Available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions with Agentforce IT Service. |
John, a release manager at Cumulus Bank, creates a release record with these key details.
| Field | Example Value |
|---|---|
| Name | September 1 Biweekly Release |
| Release Type | Major |
| Planned Start Date | September 1, 2025, 9:00 AM |
| Planned End Date | September 14, 2025, 6:00 PM |
| Risk Level | Medium |
| Priority | Normal |
| Closing Summary | All planned changes deployed successfully. |
During the two-week window, John associates all planned change requests, problems, and related incidents that are linked to the release. For example, John adds a change request association with these key details:
| Field | Example Value |
|---|---|
| Change Request Number | CHG-0004567 |
| Description | Database schema update |
| Start Time (Estimated) | September 5, 2025, 10:00 AM |
| End Time (Estimated) | September 5, 2025, 2:00 PM |
| Relationship Type | Linked to Release |
A few days later on September 16, 2025, after the biweekly release has closed, a major VPN outage disrupts access for the entire organization. The incident is classified as critical, and a problem record is created to identify the root cause. A change request is then logged to deploy the fix.
Because waiting until the next scheduled release would delay resolution, John creates an emergency release with these details and associates the major incident as the source of the release.
| Field | Example Value |
|---|---|
| Incident Number | INC-0005678 |
| Description | VPN outage impacting entire org |
| Is Major Incident? | Yes |
| Priority | Critical |
| Relationship Type | Source of Release |
| Field | Example Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Emergency Release for Network Issue |
| Release Type | Emergency |
| Planned Start Date | September 16, 2025, 9:00 AM |
| Planned End Date | September 16, 2025, 6:00 PM |
| Risk Level | High |
| Priority | Critical |
| Closing Summary | VPN outage resolved with urgent fix deployment. |
The Risk Level field doesn't have any predefined rules. However, admins can define the field by creating their own business rules. At Cumulus Bank, a business rule automatically sets the risk level to High when the release type is Emergency and the priority is Critical.
On the IT Service Calendar, the September 1 Biweekly Release appears as a two-week entry and the Emergency Release appears as a one-day entry. The calendar helps John and Cumulus Bank stakeholders confirm that releases are scheduled in the correct window, and also see both scheduled and unscheduled deployments in a single view.
