A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software.
In agile software development, a release is a deployable software package that is the culmination of several iterations. Releases can be made before the end of an iteration.
The goal of initial release planning is to estimate roughly which features will be delivered by the release deadline (presuming the deadline is fixed), or to choose a rough delivery date for a given set of features (if scope is fixed). We use this information to decide whether or not the project will produce enough ROI to at least pay for itself, and therefore whether or not we should proceed.
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