Re: release notes for "new" product and cloud-based products

[kafkascampi <kafkascampi -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I work for a cloud software company, and we have releases
frequently... sometimes adding new products to the base offering. My
general strategy is to have Technical Release Notes and then a kind of
Tour for any new products/features. Both of these live in the Help but
are offered on a public site a couple of weeks before go-live (and
earlier than that if there will be a major impact to
adminstrators/training). I do a PDF of the Tour for the early version,
with video links and screenshots/graphics, and then an HTML Tour
within the Help for go-live.

For the ongoing Technical Release Notes, we include New Products,
Upgrades & Improvements, and Bug Fixes. With links to existing help
topics.

Chris

On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 4:48 PM, John G <john -at- garisons -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi Sharon,
>
> I had to do this a couple of years ago. What we decided to do was to use
> the RelNotes as a way to introduce the new versions of the most used and
> most important features. We didnât compare/contrast old/new, and we didnât
> include everything, but we did explain how the selected features worked in
> the new version. We also provided links to the help system where more
> information could be found. No negative comments received, so IMHO, thatâs
> a win!
>
> JG
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 5:09 PM Sharon Metzger <sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi folks --
>>
>> *What's new in a new product*: We're releasing a very new version of our
>> product that resembles the old product, but is a new paradigm. I realize
>> that I can't remember ever writing release notes for a new release. Our
>> release notes typically have these sections: What's new (new features),
>> Resolved issues (bug fixes), and Known issues. There won't be any resolved
>> issues. There is a short list of known issues. But we're thinking about
>> what to say for "what's new" -- a list of features, a descriptive intro to
>> the product, a comparison to the old product... TPTB will make the final
>> decision about messaging, but I'm looking for ideas to propose.
>>
>> *Cloud-based product release notes*: A separate but related question: Any
>> best practices for release notes for cloud -- updating on a rolling basis,
>> reduce friction, probably not as formal as our pre-cloud relnotes? (I'm
>> deliberately leaving out our current process for now.)
>>
>> Thanks for any thoughts or pointers!
>> Sharon
>> sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com
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