Release process
The sections below detail the processes, responsibilities, and timing around updating Komodo Publications Planning, not the initial installation and implementation of the product. Komodo Health strives to meet and exceed the stated details below; however, specifics around any particular product update may necessitate a deviation from these items. Should such a scenario arise, Komodo Health commits to providing communication as soon as possible to outline the specifics of the situation.
Overview
Komodo Health recommends that the Komodo Publications Planning product is installed as a single tenant application that resides and operates within customer-owned and customer-managed Salesforce environments. All components utilized to deliver product functionalities reside within each customer’s Salesforce.com environment. In this model, customers retain all administrative responsibilities of the Komodo Publications Planning product once installed within their respective environments.
While each customer receives their own instance of the Komodo Publications Planning product, all customers are generally on the same, most recently released version of the product.
Release responsibilities
Komodo Health is responsible for communicating when a new release is available and what changes are shipping with each release and for updating the product documentation.
Customers are also responsible for completing any required actions listed in the given version's release notes. Required actions are actions that customers must take to ensure new versions of Komodo Publications Planning operate as desired. Komodo Health makes all attempts to minimize the need for required actions; however, often times changes must be made in areas where customers are allowed to make changes (e.g., formula fields), which then requires customer action. For example, to ensure customization stay in place, Komodo Health does not overwrite customer environments if a defect is found in the stock formula. Instead, Komodo Health asks customer Administrators, who know their system and its customizations, to evaluate the required action and to perform the requested actions in the best manner possible, which takes into account local customizations. For help with questions regarding required action, visit How to Contact Customer Support.
While not required, customers should also consider implementing the recommended actions listed in the given version's release notes. Recommended actions are similar to required actions and usually represent areas of the product that have been deprecated or revamped to offer enhanced performance and reliability. For reasons similar to those of required actions, Komodo Health does not forcibly deploy these changes to customer environments and instead asks customers to consider them for incorporation. It is common that a recommended action becomes a required action in subsequent releases.
Release process and timing
Komodo Health releases two major versions of Komodo Publications Planning each year, which are generally available in spring and fall. When the major version becomes generally available, you can install the version in your sandbox and production environments.
Prior to general availability, Komodo Health follows a communication cadence to let customers know what changes are included with the new version. Once the new version becomes available, Komodo Health advises customers upgrade to this new version during the recommended upgrade window. Upgrading during this window ensures product support eligibility. The release communication sequence and release windows are detailed in Table 76, “Release timeline”.
Timing | Steps performed |
|---|---|
2 months prior to the release |
|
1 month prior to the release |
|
Date of the release's general availability |
|
Date of the subsequent release's general availability |
|
Date of the second subsequent release's general availability |
|
Product support and recommended upgrade windows
Customers are advised to remain up to date on product releases. Product versions more than one release behind the most recent product version are not officially supported. For example, when the Fall '21 version of Komodo Publications Planning was released, the Spring '22 version of Komodo Publications Planning became unsupported. Komodo Health highly recommends staying up to date on the most recent product version by completing product upgrades during the recommended upgrade window. Visit Unsupported and supported version considerations for more information.
The recommended upgrade window spans from the date of general availability until the next product version becomes available. The product support and recommended upgrade windows for Komodo Publications Planning Spring '22 and Fall '22 are illustrated in the timeline below
Unsupported and supported version considerations
The risk and unpredictability of utilizing an unsupported version of the product increases as time passes due to these considerations:
The unsupported version is not eligible for product changes. This includes defect fixes.
The unsupported version is not regression tested against 3rd party releases, such as Salesforce and Digital Science. As these 3rd party releases continue to ship, Komodo Health cannot ensure that an unsupported version will function without issues.
Product documentation aligns with the most recent release of Komodo Publications Planning and may not be applicable to the unsupported version.
Komodo Health Customer Support’s ability to support the unsupported version is impaired due to the considerations stated above and remediation of an identified issue likely will result in a recommendation to upgrade to a supported version of the product.
Benefits to staying up to date with product releases by upgrading Komodo Publications Planning at least once a year include:
Receiving security and performance enhancements with ongoing releases.
Ensuring environments continue to function as expected in light of 3rd party releases.
For example, Salesforce has three releases a year and typically introduces enhancements to the platform that are force-enabled within customer environments within a specified time horizon. To ensure customer environments continue to function as expected, Komodo Health performs regression testing against these changes and develops new features and enhancements in response to Salesforce releases. Failure to ensure Komodo Publications Planning is up to date within the time horizon set by Salesforce can result in unexpected cessation of features and functionalities. In addition, browser releases can impact how products function.
Gaining access to new features and functionalities that can positively impact customer's users and business.
Upgrading environments
Customers are responsible for upgrading their sandbox and production environments during the upgrade window.
To perform an upgrade:
Customers decide when in the recommended upgrade window they want to upgrade Komodo Publications Planning.
Note
While customers have twelve months post general availability to upgrade their environments and maintain product support eligibility, Komodo Health highly recommends completing the upgrade during the recommended upgrade window. Visit Product support and recommended upgrade windows.
Customers run all unit tests and compile all Apex code.
Run all unit tests to ensure no issues exist that could cause the upgrade job to fail. Komodo Health also recommends regularly performing unit tests to help identify issues as soon as possible post the introduction of a conflicting change. For information on how to run all unit tests and ensure customizations do not interfere with unit tests, visit Salesforce's Run Unit Test Methods documentation.
Compile all Apex code before upgrading their environments to ensure no issues exist that could cause the upgrade job to fail. For more information, visit Salesforce's Apex Developer Guide.
Customers complete required actions and consider implementing recommended actions.
Once the product has been updated, customers must complete the required actions listed in the given version's release notes. In addition, Komodo Health encourages customers consider implementing the recommended actions listed in the given version's release notes. Completing the recommended actions ensures maximal use of the new features and enhancements released in the new version. While not required, they offer guidance to customers to ensure optimal performance and reliability within Komodo Publications Planning. Recommended actions typically become required actions over time, especially in cases where components have been deprecated.
Upgrade failures
If the upgrade fails in a post deploy step, the new version was not completely installed. You can retry the upgrade by clicking Retry in the Installed Products section on the Home page.
If an upgrade fails before the package is installed, the instance remains on the previously installed version until a new upgrade is attempted.
For help with questions or to provide feedback, visit How to Contact Customer Support.
Maintenance releases
A maintenance or hotfix release is a release that typically contains a typically small number of fixes for issues that are affecting customers. Komodo Health provides email communications when a maintenance release is available and release notes detailing the changes contained in the maintenance release. Customers are responsible for initiating the upgrade.