add initial release guide

Author: radhermit

RELEASE.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Release process
+---------------
+
+#. Add new entry in NEWS.rst along with changelog updates for the release.
+
+#. Make sure dependency versions are correct in requirements/install.txt.
+
+#. Run a test release build by force pushing to a temporary "deploy" branch.
+   This triggers the release workflow to run on Github, but doesn't actually
+   upload any of the generated files to PyPI or Github.
+
+#. Verify the test build looks correct and passes tests then tag the new
+   release and push the tag. If everything works as expected, both PyPI and
+   Github should automatically get the release files pushed to them once the
+   action completes.
+
+#. At this point, it's good to remove the temporary deploy branch from the
+   upstream repo.
+
+#. Make a commit bumping the package version via __version__ in the base module
+   and push the commit.