ReleaseSignoffQuestions
Frequently asked questions
About Workday release review generally, and about this tool specifically. If something is missing, ask.
How often does Workday release new features?
Two feature releases a year, plus weekly service updates in between. The weekly updates are small and rarely need review. The two feature releases are the ones that change behaviour and need someone to look at them.
What is a Workday release heat map?
The delivered What's New feature list, exported to Excel and extended with the columns your organisation cares about: functional area, whether setup is required, training and testing impact, and the owner. Cells are highlighted to mark what needs attention. There is no standard template, so every organisation's heat map looks slightly different. Longer explanation here.
What is the difference between a feature release and a weekly service update?
A feature release adds and changes functionality, arrives in Sandbox Preview before Production, and is what release review exists for. Weekly service updates are maintenance and are not usually reviewed feature by feature.
Who should sign off on a Workday release?
The person who owns the functional area, not the person coordinating. The coordinator's job is to make sure every feature has an owner and every owner has answered. The owner's job is to say whether the description is accurate for your configuration and whether anything needs to happen before it lands.
Do reviewers need a Workday account to use ReleaseSignoff?
No. They need an email address. That is the main practical reason this sits outside the tenant: the people who best understand whether a change matters are often not Workday users at all.
Can I run several clients from one place?
Yes. Each organisation is separate, with its own releases, owners and reviewers, and you switch between the ones you belong to. Nobody can see an organisation they are not a member of.
How does the data get in?
You import one file per release: the What's New heat map as your tenant delivers it. If you have the Feature Release Testing Workbook, that goes in as an optional second. The import reads the highlighting as well as the text. Reviewers are in neither file. You add them in the app by name and work email, and assign each functional area to one of them.
Do I have to build a list of owners before I can start?
No, and that changed on 2026-09-04. Until then the import wanted a second spreadsheet naming who owns each functional area, which had no Workday equivalent and had to be written by hand. Now you import the heat map alone, every functional area it names arrives unassigned, and you assign each one from a dropdown, adding people as you go with a name and a work email.
How do reviewers know they have something to do?
You press Notify reviewers once, after you have finished assigning. Each person gets one email saying how many features are waiting for them in that release, with a link to sign in. Assigning an area sends nothing on its own, so reshuffling ownership does not mail the same person a dozen times, and anyone already notified for that release is skipped.
Does ownership have to be set up again every release?
No. Owners and their functional areas belong to the organisation rather than to a release, so the next release starts from the last one's assignments. In practice only the changes need your attention: a new area in the delivered report, or somebody who has moved on.
What if our functional area names do not match the delivered report?
They usually do not, and that mismatch is the most common reason features end up unowned. The import shows you the mismatches and you map them once. The mapping is remembered, so the next release does not repeat the work.
How long does setup take?
Importing a release takes a few minutes. Deciding who owns each functional area is the part that takes actual thought, and you do it properly once: ownership carries forward, so the next release starts from the last one's assignments and only the changes need your attention.
How is this different from Workday's Adoption Planning Hub?
The Hub is included in your tenant and is a good tool. It is scoped to one tenant, and every reviewer needs the right security domains. This sits outside the tenant, needs only an email address for reviewers, and holds several clients under one login you switch between. If you are one customer and everyone signing off already has tenant access, use the Hub.
Why not just use a shared spreadsheet?
For one client with a handful of owners, a shared sheet genuinely works and you should keep it. It comes apart when several people edit the same rows, when the list of owners has drifted, when nobody can tell who signed off and when, and when you need to know which features nobody has claimed. That last question is the one a sheet never volunteers.
Is ReleaseSignoff affiliated with Workday?
No. It is an independent product, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Workday, Inc. Workday is a trademark of Workday, Inc.
Who is behind this?
One Workday consultant, who built it doing his own release sign-off work. It is new, and as of now nobody else is using it. What that means for cost is here.