If you’re in IT operations, you’ve most likely experienced the following situation: a large scale integration project with several developers, business analysts, testers, UAT leads, project managers, program managers, executive steering committees....  But wait, where’s operations? A month before the project goes into production; they come to operations to involve you in learning about and implementing the solution. Typically, that’s when the problems begin.  Guest blogger Suzanne Battiston, a Principal Technical Account Manager with Microsoft, discusses and provides pointers on how a good release management process will create a bridge between the project team and operations ensuring that the design can be supported and that operations can effectively manage the solution once it's handed off.  More details at http://www.opsvault.com/release-management-dont-just-throw-it-over-the-fence/.