Semi-automatic Generation of Audience-Specific Release Notes

Agile development methodologies encourage frequent releases. However, many releases can overwhelm clients, testers and users if they do not understand what the actual difference is between two versions. Every release raises questions like whether they need to update right away, whether functionality has been added or problems have been fixed and finally whether it is worth their time to try out a new version. Release notes can alleviate this problem by informing their audience about the contents of a particular release, but the creation of high quality release notes takes time and effort. A release manager needs to have the release`s target audience in mind, access information from project management, issue tracker, and build system and might even need input from designers and developers. We describe a semi-automated approach for generating targeted, informative release notes. Our solution is designed from the point of view of a release manager who acts as an editor of auto-generated content based on information gathered from both build server and issue tracker. Furthermore, it allows release notes to be tailored to a specific audience depending on their specific information needs.