Run a Deployment

This guide shows you how to set up a deployment, keep its inbox in order, and turn its work into the next deliverable. At the end you have a deployment that collects its own work and feeds it back into delivery.

Prerequisites

• You have a workspace open. A project is optional. See Set Up a Project.
• You know what a deployment and its inbox are. See About Deployments.

Create the deployment

Open Deployments. You can open it for the whole workspace, or from the Deployments tab of a project.

Choose New deployment. Fill in the form:

• Name. What people call it, for example NUU Ops on the web.
• Version (optional). A free label, for example 1.4 or Spring launch.
• Project (optional). The project that the deployment belongs to. Choose No project when it stands alone.
• Notes. Text that the page shows.
• Context. What this is about, for search and suggestions. The page does not show it.

Choose Create.

The deployments list shows each deployment with its version label, its project, its status, the number of open tasks in its inbox, and its check-up.

Make it active

Open the deployment. Set its status to Active, or choose Make active in the Inbox part of the page. The service makes the inbox section.

The other statuses are Paused and Retired. Use Paused when it stops for a while. Use Retired when it is finished. The inbox stays, but check-ups run only while the deployment is active.

Add work to the inbox

The Inbox part of the page is for what comes up while the deployment runs: feedback, hotfixes, and upkeep.

To add a task, choose its tag, type the task, and choose Add. The tags are:

• Feedback: something a person said about it.
• Hotfix: a bug to fix now.
• Ongoing: upkeep that goes on while it runs.
• Recurring: comes back on a schedule.

For a recurring task, also choose how often it comes back: daily, weekly, or monthly. When you mark a recurring task done, the service makes its next copy in the same place.

You can also put tasks in the inbox from anywhere: choose the deployment as the place in quick create or in the Move dialog. See Create a Task in the Right Place.

Triage the inbox

Use the tag chips to show the tasks of one tag. Choose Show done to see the done tasks too.

Decide what to do with each task:

• Do a small task in the inbox, and mark it done.
• Move a task that belongs to planned work into a section. See Move Tasks.
• Leave the rest for the next deliverable.

Set a check-up

In the Check-up part of the page, choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. The page shows the next check-up. Choose Off to stop the check-ups.

When a check-up is due, the service adds the task "Check" and the name of the deployment to the inbox, with the tag Ongoing. The service looks for due check-ups once an hour, so the task can come up to an hour after the due time. If the last check-up task is still open in the inbox, the service does not add a second one.

Choose Check now to add a check-up task at once.

Do the check. Look at the deployment. Add a task for each problem that you find. Then mark the check-up task done.

Start a deliverable from the inbox

When the inbox holds enough work for a delivery, turn it into a deliverable.

1. Choose Start a deliverable.
2. Give the deliverable a title.
3. If the deployment has no project, choose the project where the deliverable goes.
4. Under Tasks to move, pick the tasks for this delivery. Choose Pick all to pick every task.
5. Choose Start.

The tasks that you pick move out of the inbox into the new deliverable. The service makes the deliverable with one section and moves the tasks into it, with their subtasks. The deliverable records that it came from this deployment, and it ships to this deployment.

Plan the deliverable as usual. See Plan Work with Sections.

Close the loop

The Deliverables part of the deployment page shows what ships here and what started from the inbox. Each deliverable shows Open or Done.

When the work is delivered, mark the deliverable done. The deployment keeps running. New work comes up in its inbox. The loop starts again.

Delete a deployment

When you delete a deployment, its inbox stays as a plain section. The tasks in it are not lost.

Next steps

• Read the loop in About Deployments.
• Move inbox work in Move Tasks.
• Capture work fast in Create a Task in the Right Place.