What are the three setup steps of Release Management, and which two dates matter most?

1. Release track definition — model the release, decide which systems enter its change control landscape, understand integration/dependencies to include together.
2. Release planning — set the schedule, decide major vs minor.
3. Manage release cycles — coarse → fine planning (dates/durations/schedule).

The two most critical dates: Development close (dev must finish — like a train door closing; miss it and wait for the next, no exceptions) and Deployment (when content moves to production).