Northwestern Mutual has excelled at building a high-performance release team — one of the critical success factors in release management. What makes the firm's release team work so well? Close alignment with testing and test environment management, open communication channels, a willingness and ability to drop changes that don't keep up with the rest of the release, and smart metrics to measure its own success. The value of such a team is apparent: Northwestern Mutual's desktop apps are stable, and its field offices are happy and productive.