OnCore software is delivered through four types of distributions: Major Releases, Minor Releases, Maintenance Updates, and Patches.
Major Releases: Major releases are the primary means of delivering new features and functionality to the installed base and to new institutions. Major releases are thus distributed to all institutions and are scheduled once or twice a year (with at least six months of advance planning).
Minor Releases: Minor releases are distributed to a more limited group of institutions. They may contain enhancements, new features that require little or no user training, or features resulting from collaborative development projects. A minor release is scheduled with at least three months prior notice. Institutions are not generally required to upgrade to a minor release.
Maintenance Updates: Maintenance updates are scheduled bundles of software fixes that are made available on a regular basis. For every maintenance update, PercipEnz will provide release notes that describe the set of anomalies and their respective repairs. If one or more repairs are judged to have high impact or mitigate critical issues (security, data loss, data corruption, etc.), PercipEnz will specifically recommend installation of the update; otherwise the institution need only accept the update upon determination that the set of repairs documented in the release notes are impactful to its workflow. A maintenance update contains very few enhancements and no new features.
Patches: Patches are unscheduled software updates made in response to critical issues requiring an immediate repair. The quality assurance and control systems of PercipEnz are designed to minimize the need for such patch distributions. A patch contains only changes required to repair the critical issue and thus never contain enhancements or new features.
There are many sources from which requirements arise and it is not possible to address all the known requirements in a given release. Given this, there is a need for a framework for prioritizing the requirements. The following are some of the sources, in order of their relative priorities, that PercipEnz considers when making these decisions:
To ensure that software changes are appropriate, relevant, and would not create new user issues, PercipEnz has processes, tracking tools, and a change control team that reviews and approves all changes to the software. In addition to the more routine processing of anomaly reports and enhancement ideas, the Change Control Team (CCT) plans releases, prioritizes enhancement ideas, and tracks change requests through to resolution. The CCT is composed of representatives from senior leadership, business development, quality assurance, engineering, implementation, and product support and training. Additional comment or clarification from customers or other subject matter experts may be sought on an as-needed basis.
Quality assurance begins at the requirements stage and runs through the whole gambit of software development. It includes unit and system-wide testing, regression testing, and post deployment validation. PercipEnz has well developed processes, tracking tools, and a dedicated team to ensure that OnCore software is of high quality.
Deployment of a release to a production environment always follows testing by the research center of that release in a test environment.
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