Popular Post Jawloms Posted November 25, 2011 Popular Post Posted November 25, 2011 What a shocker - An Aumtumn release that's been withdrawn. Doesn't this happen every year? *** SIMS 2011 Autumn Release - Please Read Following reports on the forums of issues with pastoral structures following upgrades to the SIMS 2011 Autumn release, we have taken the precautionary measure of temporarily withdrawing the Release whilst we investigate the issue. We will update you when we have more information. We apologise for any inconvenience that this issue might cause. Please feel free to email me ([email protected]) if you want to discuss this further. Regards, Jonathan Wood SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases) 5
timbo343 Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 When did you read this. Have you got a source? Tim
Jawloms Posted November 25, 2011 Author Posted November 25, 2011 *** SIMS 2011 Autumn Release - Please Read Following reports on the forums of issues with pastoral structures following upgrades to the SIMS 2011 Autumn release, we have taken the precautionary measure of temporarily withdrawing the Release whilst we investigate the issue. We will update you when we have more information. We apologise for any inconvenience that this issue might cause. Please feel free to email me ([email protected]) if you want to discuss this further. Regards, Jonathan Wood SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases) That is a Copy and Paste from SupportNet.
TheScarfedOne Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Thats the 2nd issue with the Autumn update now. Its been released once already because of a mistake with the Census stuff. @PhilNeal - whats going on?
Steve21 Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 When did you read this. Have you got a source? Tim Aye, Was asked to double check it with Capita themselves by NM, and it's confirmed by helpdesk too, It's taken offline! Steve
TheScarfedOne Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 @Jawloms - please include the SupportNet Article ref when posting
Jawloms Posted November 25, 2011 Author Posted November 25, 2011 @TheScarfedOne - It doesn't have an article ref, it's in the "News" section. I assumed the fact it was signed "Regards, Jonathan Wood SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases)" would be enough for people to realise it was genuine and not just something I'd heard. 1
PhilNeal Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 At present we are trying to establish who has been affected; it certainly doesn't seem to have affected everyone as so far we only have 3 cases and 1000 schools have taken the release. The problem shows up not being able to see registration groups. Needless to say we are doing everything we can to rectify the issue and very much regret the inconvenience that will have been caused.
TheScarfedOne Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Thanks @PhilNeal - always good to get news from the horses mouth!
matt40k Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 @Jawloms - bet you wondered why you bothered
enjay Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Amusingly, our Account Manager phoned me earlier this week and asked if I'd installed the Autumn update yet. I gave him a bit of an ear-bashing about how Capita haven't earned the confidence for me to install updates until they've been in the wild for at least a month; he sounded rather startled and quickly changed the subject. Seems like I wasn't so out of line :-)
zag Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 I was telling one of our SMT people yesterday why I haven't installed the latest release due to Capita always pulling the release. Low and behold I read this. I really do think the software is too complicated to ever get a bug free update though.
Sivadam Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 This highlights the problem that Capita has in testing the releases! If I had been at UAT for this release then my dataset would not have picked up any issue! We have upgraded with no problem at all and the fact that the Census fileset was missing is a minor irritance. It only took a couple of seconds to import it! Releases are tested extensively but there are now 22,000 schools using SIMS and they all use SIMS in a unique manner! That is SIMS strength - you can tailor it to the needs of the school. The fact that only 3 schools are affected, out of the 1,000 or so who have taken it, highlights how problematic testing can be! In my opinion Capita now do very well with their UAT. And if you disagree then you can always volunteer to join the scheme and become a UAT Associate school.
enjay Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 If only 3/1000 schools are affected, perhaps pulling the software was an over-reaction. Perhaps it could be left up but with a warning that xyz function doesn't work, and schools can then make a decision themselves on whether or not to proceed.
matt40k Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 If only 3/1000 schools are affected, perhaps pulling the software was an over-reaction. Perhaps it could be left up but with a warning that xyz function doesn't work, and schools can then make a decision themselves on whether or not to proceed. Not sure it's that simple, but I do think it's a bit extreme. Personally I wouldn't have re-released because of that census issue, so at least we wouldn't end up with autumn 11 re-re-release!!
pubgrub277 Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 They cant win either way really can they. some will want it now now now and others will be of the wait and see type. I would say that it does seem a very small minority and perhaps on this occasion they might have left it up. Does anyone test a version of the updates on a mirror/non live environment but with their data? i've used a VM a few times to test various things and wondered if anyone has the time to do this a matter of course?
Cmd.exe Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 I never did, apart from the lack of time available to do this, i wouldn't be able to test all the different areas of SIMS sufficiently to make it worth doing.
enjay Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Not sure it's that simple, but I do think it's a bit extreme. Personally I wouldn't have re-released because of that census issue, so at least we wouldn't end up with autumn 11 re-re-release!! We don't do Census, so I would be happy to install a release - and thus get all the other new features and fixes - knowing that Census didn't work. As it is, I can't install it because they've pulled it.
CyberNerd Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Does anyone test a version of the updates on a mirror/non live environment but with their data? i've used a VM a few times to test various things and wondered if anyone has the time to do this a matter of course? That's what we are paying capita for. I think they should just rename the summer Autumn Release to Winter, instead of releasing beta's
enjay Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Does anyone test a version of the updates on a mirror/non live environment but with their data? No, for three reasons: 1) time 2) can't test everything 3) shouldn't have to. I don't do that with any other company's software.
matt40k Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Happens to everyone, that's why Windows Service Packs and Centos has yum.
enjay Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Happens to everyone, that's why Windows Service Packs Not a good comparison for two reasons: 1) Microsoft didn't pull Windows from general release because of a problem with sending emails in blue using Outlook Express; they released the product so that everyone could use the other things, and then released an update to Windows later. 2) Windows Service Packs aren't (generally) fixing something which is completely broken - MS fixed those before release, and then send out monthly updates for the minor issues.
pubgrub277 Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 No, for three reasons: 1) time 2) can't test everything 3) shouldn't have to. I don't do that with any other company's software. I don't for the same reasons but always have that worry that something will break after an update (regardless of how many tests have been done at other sites/on test data). We depend so heavily on this system now that i find myself thinking should i make the effort/time just to be sure it works on our data.
GrumbleDook Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 MS don't pull service packs, but they do pull hot fixes and replace them with new ones ... how many of us play the '5 working days' game with patches from *anyone*? For my home machine I am happy to risk it with Apple and MS but I am loathe to do it in a production environment. 3/1000 is a healthy success rate for most small user base applications, but with the number of installs they now have, and the fact that MIS is mission critical, then they have no choice to pull it. As for testing it ... even with MS / Apple / Cisco patches ... in a large scale environment (and we do often claim that schools should be considered as SME) then we should expect some local testing ... some leave this to the LA / local SIMS teams ... but some do use VMs to test themselves.
localzuk Posted November 25, 2011 Posted November 25, 2011 Now that I seem to look after 2 schools, 1 school will be sighing in relief, the other is happily managed by someone else when it comes to SIMS. I'm glad that Capita have the ability and desire to pull something like this. The knock on effect is disastrous even at a rate of 3/1000. Kudos to Capita for acting quickly and pulling it I say.
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