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🧭 Digital.ai Release (XL Release) – Complete Terminology & Definitions

1. Release

A release is the central entity in XL Release — representing a deployment or delivery process (e.g., a software release, change rollout, or CI/CD pipeline).
It is made up of phases, tasks, and dependencies, and tracks progress from start to finish.

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2. Template

A template defines the reusable structure of a release — including phases, tasks, gates, and variables.
Templates can be cloned to create actual releases with pre-defined configurations and workflows.

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3. Phase

A phase is a logical grouping of tasks in a release (e.g., “Build”, “Test”, “Deploy”, “Verify”).
Phases help organize complex release workflows into manageable sections.

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4. Task

A task is an individual step in a phase.
Tasks can be:

• Manual Tasks – require human input or approval.
• Automated Tasks – executed automatically using integrations (e.g., Jenkins, Ansible, Jira, etc.).
• Script Tasks – run custom scripts (Python, Shell, PowerShell, Groovy, etc.).

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5. Gate

A gate is a checkpoint or approval step between phases.
It ensures compliance or verification before progressing to the next phase.
For example, a “QA Approval” gate before the “Deploy to Production” phase.

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6. Variable

A variable stores data used across a release or template — such as credentials, environment names, or version numbers.
Variables can be:

• Global (available across all releases)
• Template-level
• Release-level
• Task-level

They can also be masked (secure) for sensitive data like passwords or tokens.

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7. Trigger

A trigger automatically starts a release or task when certain conditions are met.
Examples:

• A new artifact in Jenkins
• A webhook from GitHub
• A scheduled time (cron-based)

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8. Release Flow / Pipeline

A release flow defines the end-to-end orchestration of phases and tasks that move software from development to production.
It can include parallel paths, conditions, and approvals.

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9. Dependency

A dependency specifies that one release or task depends on another.
This helps control order and timing — e.g., “Release B can start only after Release A finishes successfully.”

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10. Environment

An environment represents the target infrastructure where deployments or tests happen — like Dev, QA, UAT, or Prod.
Environments can have associated configurations and permissions.

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11. Team

A team defines users and their roles for specific releases or templates.
Each team can have different permissions — such as Release Admin, Release Engineer, Viewer, etc.

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12. Role

A role defines access control privileges in XL Release.
For example:

• Release Admin – full control
• Template Owner – can edit templates
• Viewer – read-only access
• Task Assignee – can execute assigned tasks

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13. Folder

A folder is a logical grouping of releases, templates, and teams.
It’s used to organize projects or departments (e.g., “Payments”, “Infrastructure”, “HR”).

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14. Permissions

Permissions define who can view, create, edit, or execute releases, templates, or tasks.
They are managed at the folder or team level.

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15. Release Dashboard

A dashboard provides real-time visualization of all releases — showing progress, bottlenecks, overdue tasks, and metrics.

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16. Reports

Reports summarize release performance, audit trails, task completion rates, and SLA metrics.
They support compliance and management reporting.

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17. Audit Trail

Every change, execution, or approval in a release is logged in an immutable audit trail for compliance and traceability.

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18. External Task / Integration

These are automated tasks that integrate with external tools such as:

• Jenkins (CI pipelines)
• Ansible (infrastructure automation)
• ServiceNow / Jira (change management)
• Git / GitHub / GitLab
• XL Deploy / Digital.ai Deploy

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19. Script Task

A script task runs custom code inside XL Release to perform dynamic logic — often written in Python, Groovy, or PowerShell.
Useful for integrating APIs or conditional execution.

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20. Condition Task

A condition task checks a boolean condition (true/false) to control flow — often used to skip or continue phases dynamically.

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21. Parallel Task Group

A parallel group allows multiple tasks to execute simultaneously within a phase — ideal for speeding up workflows.

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22. Checkpoint

A checkpoint marks an important milestone or progress marker in a release — similar to a bookmark.

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23. Task Assignee

The assignee is the user or team responsible for completing a task.
For manual tasks, the assignee must explicitly mark it “done”.

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24. Comments / Notes

Users can add comments or notes on tasks, phases, or releases to provide context or documentation.

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25. Flag / Marker

A flag is a visual indicator (like a warning or alert) marking attention-required tasks (e.g., failed automation, overdue task).

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26. Release ID / Key

Each release has a unique identifier (e.g., RLS-1234) used for tracking, integration, and reporting.

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27. Release State

Releases can be in states like:

• Planned – not started yet
• In Progress – executing
• Paused – temporarily stopped
• Completed – finished successfully
• Aborted / Failed – terminated or failed

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28. Scheduled Release

A release scheduled to start automatically at a specific time/date — helpful for maintenance windows or nightly deployments.

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29. Variables Panel

UI area in XL Release to view and override variables for a specific release instance before starting it.

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30. REST API / Webhooks

XL Release exposes REST APIs and webhooks to:

• Create or trigger releases
• Update tasks
• Fetch release data programmatically
  Used widely for DevOps toolchain integrations.

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31. Plugins / Extensions

Reusable integrations that extend XL Release functionality (e.g., Slack notifications, ServiceNow approvals, AWS automation).

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32. SLA / KPI Metrics

Metrics to measure release performance and compliance — e.g.:

• Lead time
• Mean time to deploy (MTTD)
• Approval delays
• Task completion times

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33. Release Calendar

A visual timeline showing all scheduled releases and environments, helping prevent deployment overlaps or conflicts.

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34. Governance / Compliance

Policies and audit checks that ensure releases follow organization’s standards and regulatory compliance.

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35. Digital.ai Platform

XL Release is part of the Digital.ai DevOps Platform, integrated with:

• Digital.ai Deploy (XL Deploy)
• Digital.ai Agility (VersionOne)
• Digital.ai Intelligence (Analytics)

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36. Blueprints

Pre-built release templates or best practice patterns for common scenarios (e.g., CI/CD pipeline, multi-environment deployment).

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37. Task Execution Logs

Detailed logs of each task execution, stored in XL Release for debugging and traceability.

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38. Failure Strategy

Defines what happens when a task fails:

• Stop the release
• Continue to next task
• Manual intervention required

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39. Notifications

XL Release can send email or chat notifications on key events (task completion, failure, approvals, etc.).

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40. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Security mechanism defining who can access what in the system, using roles and team assignments.

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