chore(doc): add documentation of release process (#818)

relates to STACKITTPR-200

Author: rubenhoenle

README.md

@@ -185,6 +185,10 @@ make install-dev
 When using the `make install-dev` command it is important to prevent `poetry` from creating a different environment for every package.
 This can be achieved by running `poetry config virtualenvs.create false`, but there are multiple way to achieve this. You can check the [`poetry` docs](https://python-poetry.org/docs/configuration/) to see which option fits best for you.
 
+## Release creation
+
+See the [release documentation](./RELEASE.md) for further information.
+
 ## License
 
 Apache 2.0

RELEASE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Release
+
+## Release cycle
+
+A release of the whole SDK should be created at least every 2 weeks. 
+
+## Release creation
+
+### Single service
+
+The SDK is split into all the different STACKIT [services](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/tree/main/services), each of them having their own version numbers.
+
+**Checklist before releasing a single service**
+
+- [ ] Changelog entries were added to the `CHANGELOG.md` in the root directory of the repository (see [here](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/blob/608176ab8cdfa60a3cfb09da49de0b1aba5fea84/CHANGELOG.md))
+- [ ] Changelog entries were added to the `CHANGELOG.md` file of the service to be released (see e.g. [here](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/blob/608176ab8cdfa60a3cfb09da49de0b1aba5fea84/services/dns/CHANGELOG.md))
+- [ ] Version number of the `pyproject.toml` of the service was adjusted (see e.g. [here](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/blob/608176ab8cdfa60a3cfb09da49de0b1aba5fea84/services/dns/pyproject.toml))
+
+**Releasing a single service**
+
+1. As soon as a PR is merged to the main branch, which bumps the version of a service in it's `pyproject.toml` file, a release for this service will be created [automatically](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/actions/workflows/cd.yaml).
+    - This means a git tag will be created: `services/<SERVICE-NAME>/vX.X.X`. E.g. for the `sqlserverflex` service version `v1.0.1` the git tag would be named `services/sqlserverflex/v1.0.1`
+
+### Whole SDK
+
+**Checklist before releasing the whole SDK**
+
+- [ ] Date was set/updated in the `CHANGELOG.md` file in the root directory of the repository (see [here](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/blob/608176ab8cdfa60a3cfb09da49de0b1aba5fea84/CHANGELOG.md))
+
+**Releasing the whole SDK**
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> Consider informing / syncing with the team before creating a new release.
+
+1. Check out latest main branch on your machine
+2. Create git tag: `git tag release-YYYY-MM-DD`
+3. Push the git tag: `git push origin --tags`
+4. Copy the changelog entries for the new release from the `CHANGELOG.md` file in the root directory of the repository (see [here](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/blob/608176ab8cdfa60a3cfb09da49de0b1aba5fea84/CHANGELOG.md)) to your clipboard.
+5. Go to the [releases page](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/releases) on GitHub and create a new release. Select the git tag you just created.
+6. Before creating the GitHub release, add the *Highlights* heading at the top of the markdown description and paste the changelog entries from your clipboard (see [previous releases](https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-sdk-python/releases/tag/release-2025-03-27) to see what it should look like). Then create and publish the GitHub release.
+