After automating the build, releasing an application, and working on increasing the flow of value to end users, many developers find that it becomes harder and harder to keep documentation and release notes up to date. As the amount of releases increases, this becomes more and more work, and eventually, the team will fall behind or even give up completely.

To combat this, it is possible to automate the creation and publication of release notes. One way to do this is by using the Azure DevOps Release Notes Generator. The generator is an Azure Functions application that is available on GitHub. To use the Release Notes Generator, the following needs to be done:

1. Download or clone the function code from GitHub.
2. Create an Azure App Service Plan, function app, and storage account in Azure.
3. Create a new blob container in the storage account called releases.
4. Compile the function code and deploy it to an Azure App Service.
5. Create a new Azure DevOps WebHook to call the deployed function whenever a new release is created.

After setting this up, the generator will run whenever a new release is created. It will then do the following:

1. Query the created release for its name, all associated work items, and all the commits that are new since the previous release.
2. Generate a markdown file containing all of this information.
3. Upload that file to the blob container, that is, releases.

Of course, the Azure DevOps Release Notes Generator is just one example of automating tasks around releases, and there are other alternatives available as well. Also, many companies create tailored, in-house automation scripts for updating and publishing documentation and other tasks.