Introducing Development streams

[Mike.Sheen]

As of build 7.00.55.00 of Jiwa 7 we have introduced development streams and release streams.

Release streams are versions of Jiwa 7 we have run through our regression testing and deem to be of commercial quality, and will fully support.

Development streams are versions of Jiwa 7 that we have done no regression testing on, but are the latest build. Once a development stream version is produced, our process is to test each change and verify the change works as intended. If any defects are found, we indicate that on the original bug report as reopened, and it is targeted to the next build. We then fix all the reopened bugs and produce a new development build. Rinse and repeat - until all defects are addressed.

We then regression test the latest development build - we have a suite of test plans to test various aspects of the software and verify the software works as intended. If any problems occur, we log a new bug and it is targeted to the next build. We then fix all the reopened and new bugs and produce a new development build. Rinse and repeat (so we test the logged defects, and run through all the test plans again) - until all defects are addressed and all test plans pass.

Once we have a build with no outstanding known defects, we declare that build a release build and it is moved into the Release Stream. We've performed this process for over a decade with Jiwa, but this is the first time we have made development streams available for general download.

We have introduced into the software a gate to prevent upgrading data without a valid licence for the new version. If you want to try out a Development stream version you will need a valid licence before the upgrade commences. Upon upgrade we prompt for the user to supply a valid licence file - We provide one for the demonstration data in the Jiwa installation folder, but if you want to try out a development build on a real customer database, you will need to set their company name in the system to be "Jiwa Financials Evaluation" and supply the demo data licence when upgrading.

We did this because we did not want inadvertent upgrades to development streams, and also because we want to be involved in the upgrade process to provide :

• A better experience for customers
• A better experience for dealers / resellers
• A method of feedback on how to improve the upgrade process

You can set a databases Company Name to be "Jiwa Financials Evaluation" using the following script :

Code: Select all

UPDATE SY_SysValues SET Contents = 'Jiwa Financials Evaluation' WHERE IDKey = 'CompanyName'

It should go without saying that a live customer database should not be upgraded to a development stream version. We will not provide a licence for live databases for development stream versions, except in extenuating circumstances. Attempting to run a live customer site on a demo licence will limit the site to 2 concurrent users, and with a licence expiry date set to the near future. It would also contravene the licence agreement for Jiwa 7.

You can see both Development and Release streams available for download on our support page

Support Hub Downloads

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We've provided this ability to download development streams to be more transparent with our development progress and to assist dealers and customers with gauging the impact of upcoming releases. I think this will be of value to both dealers and customers alike.

Mike

[phillip.symons]

Mike

Whilst I appreciate the attempt at transparency one would rightly ask why there has been no customer releases apart from he initial release
given that you have in the last 4 releases fixed 253 bugs but released no customer release why would any customer in their right mind go live on 7
its clearly not stable or at the very least requires more timely release of stable updates.
moving forward is there a timeline that can be expected between fix and release
Dave was telling us at the launch how much quicker it was going to be to get bugs sorted

Phillip

[Mike.Sheen]

Hi Phillip,

why there has been no customer releases apart from he initial release
given that you have in the last 4 releases fixed 253 bugs but released no customer release

The process is for us to fix issues, until all significant issues are addressed - then do a development build and test to verify those issues are addressed. Sometimes fixing those issues introduces other issues, and new bugs are logged, and sometimes we get previously unknown issues logged also. When we have fixed all known defects deemed to be significant, and have verified that those issues are fixed, we then regression test - which sometimes results in more issues being logged.

This is an accepted industry practice, and one I adopted for the development cycle to produce quality software.

I understand one could look at our now very transparent processes and question the stability of the product. This is the downside of such transparency, but it holds us accountable and motivates us to improve. It also serves to better inform customers and the channel of the activity being undertaken and a better gauge of when a stable release is expected. Known defects are often not always issues users of the product would notice, or be impeded by. You need to look at the nature of the reported issue to determine the scope. If we had any issues which prevented the operation of the business of a customer, or presented a security risk then a patch would be issued until the next stable release. We have not found the need to issue such a patch with version 7 at this time.

why would any customer in their right mind go live on 7 its clearly not stable or at the very least requires more timely release of stable updates.

That's a little unfair. Many of the issues that have prevented us moving onto regression testing at the moment have been issues most customers will be able to work around or simply would not affect them. It's not an indication at all of the capability of the product in a production environment.

moving forward is there a timeline that can be expected between fix and release

We work as fast as we can - again, if you understand the process as I outlined you can appreciate why it is difficult to provide a release date in advance. Having said that, we expect a stable release mid May 2014. We expect to begin regression testing this week or early next week - and barring any significant problems a stable release should be seen by the middle of May. This is not a firm date - it's simply the best estimate I can give with the current information we have.

Dave was telling us at the launch how much quicker it was going to be to get bugs sorted

Our defect fix rate for version 7 is an order of magnitude higher than on the technology platform used for the previous version 6 - David would have told you that based on my briefs to him. It's not valid to suggest David's comments are untrue as you have done so. David's comments are valid, and have a factual foundation.

Here is a table detailing the fix rate for the last 4 stable releases of 06.05.xx, along with the fix rate since the last stable Version 7 release.

Version	Elapsed Months	Fixes	Fix rate per Month
07.00.97	3.5	380	108
07.00.78	5	704	141
07.00.53	59	2455	41
06.05.13	11	364	32
06.05.12	4	199	50
06.05.11	2	81	40
06.05.10	10	155	16

When the next stable release of Version 7 is released, I'll ammend the data to the above table for a more accurate and fairer comparison (07.00.63 in the above table is the most recent development build and has not yet undergone regression testing - so the defect rate may go down - or up - a little, depending on the outcome of regression tests).
EDIT: 07.00.78 was declared a stable release 13 August 2014.

With version 7 of Jiwa the software has improved, our processes have improved and I'm confident that you, as a customer, will notice this improvement.

Thanks for your comments.

Mike