creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 If i was with an LA i would probably insist they tested it on my data. In the end it's going to save them hassle supporting me later less calls from me = happier supportline monkey The problem there is that many of the problems do not show until someone runs the specific routine which has the problem. The chances of someone in a LA team spotting this is minimal. Not every problem occurs on every school either.
vikpaw Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Just thinking out loud fellas, that's all. I would imagine a centrally hosted test facility. It doesn't take that long to restore and upgrade a set of data. I wouldn't say do all of them. But every little helps. If you look at the last couple of issues, they might have been caught if the testing net was cast a little wider. Homepage panels broken, pastoral structure glitch, ... I'm not having a go at LAs or trying to throw more work your way, you guys do a sterling job, just wondering if as a community there are better ways to help ourselves. UAT isn't necessarily the answer and not convenient for all! Saying Capita should do more vigorous testing, also isn't helping either though. It's the data that does the testing, not a person or establishment.
Sivadam Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 (edited) The problem there is that many of the problems do not show until someone runs the specific routine which has the problem. The chances of someone in a LA team spotting this is minimal. Not every problem occurs on every school either. You hit the nail on the head there creese! The truth is that nobody will know if there is an issue or not until all 22,000 schools have updated! An individual error can occur in any school! Hence the school-specific patches! As I said earlier, if I had UATd this release (I actually attended UAT for SLG, to get a heads up on the the Homework Webpart!), then I would have noticed no problem whatsoever. I even ran a Spring Census Test after we upgraded to 7.142 before I knew that Fileset90 had been omitted! Edited November 29, 2011 by Sivadam
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 It's real needle in haystack stuff. The fact it is taking all this time to fix proves it is not as simple as we would like to think it is.
vikpaw Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 My pastoral structure seems fine, and i've doctored it to create an admin tier, so even admin staff can be assigned a division to be reported on .
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 My pastoral structure seems fine, and i've doctored it to create an admin tier, so even admin staff can be assigned a division to be reported on . That's the point, no amount of testing by you would have discovered the problem. Your data may be immune, unaffected or due for problems in the coming weeks.
skunk Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Just glad my LA did not approve my Census in time............always seem to wait a couple of months these days after being stung for too many years applying the new releases as soon as they become available.
vikpaw Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 That's the point, no amount of testing by you would have discovered the problem. Your data may be immune, unaffected or due for problems in the coming weeks. You're right. My point is that it took me less than an hour to get it on and running. I've been meaning to do it for ages, and now i know i'm not affected. If someone that is affected did the same, they would have found the flaw. Ditto when the homepages went wrong if an affected user had tested, it might have been found sooner. I'm sure from the testing that is done, loads of these issues come about and are fixed before we even notice, and there is not such a big deal made. If the needle is in a pile of 22,000 pieces of straw, the more we lift the more chance we have of finding any flaws. We don't necessarily need in depth testing just more varied testers. If the issue is buried deep in some obscure part of curriculum planner when accessed by a head of department, we will miss it, but if its a case of look at your pastoral structure, then we can all do that. As well as, try taking a register, run a report, enter data in a marksheet etc. I don't test sims that well, but if it's an FMS upgrade, i make them do lots of different tasks to make sure it is all going to work. Our fees are processed from sims into FMS and our payroll comes out. We don't want more than a months delay! And often, an upgrade might happen mid-month - v.scary. Even a month, when i only get around 8 days contact time, isn't a great deal to solve a big problem.
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 We have about 150 schools. If the failure on this was 3/1000 the odds are, none of our schools would be affected. I'm afraid we got caught too may times that we are not allowed to roll out, neither are we allowed to test. Perhaps if the schools paid more, we could employ someone to test more....
Sivadam Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Update from SupportNet:- *** SIMS 2011 Autumn Release - Please Read 29/11/2011 29/11/2011 We are in the final stages of investigating the issues with the autumn release. Unfortunately it has proved more complex to fully investigate than we had anticipated. I will provide an update with more details by COB tomorrow at the latest. Regards, Jon
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Update from SupportNet:- *** SIMS 2011 Autumn Release - Please Read 29/11/2011 29/11/2011 We are in the final stages of investigating the issues with the autumn release. Unfortunately it has proved more complex to fully investigate than we had anticipated. I will provide an update with more details by COB tomorrow at the latest. Regards, Jon Yeh!! Do I win a prize? It's real needle in haystack stuff. The fact it is taking all this time to fix proves it is not as simple as we would like to think it is.[/Quote] I just had to give the last prize away. Still... to a good cause.
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 That's the one. It's heading for a school in SA.
matt40k Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Ah managed to keep mine, had to do the paper work however. Might have been a problem if I wasn't paid peanuts. Still didn't go far, a book and a pen drive!
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 Ah managed to keep mine, had to do the paper work however. Might have been a problem if I wasn't paid peanuts. Still didn't go far, a book and a pen drive! I don't mind. Last time I was there I gave most of my lottery win away to the orphan's project. I didn't know at the time but it saved the play they were about to perform. It wasn't a life changing amount, for me.
glennda Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 We got notified today of this from our lea! Nice to see they are on the ball.... And its just been sold to capita!
creese Posted November 29, 2011 Posted November 29, 2011 How much dare I ask? I think it was about a £70 win. Gave away about 50. One of the big wins would see me moving out there :-)
creese Posted November 30, 2011 Posted November 30, 2011 i recently wont an ipod touch Oh dear. Never mind, maybe some one will swap it for an Android.
Sivadam Posted November 30, 2011 Posted November 30, 2011 (edited) Oh dear. Never mind, maybe some one will swap it for an Android. Or even a WP7.5! Or, even better, a Samsung Slate! I wonder if this bloke will bring me one! Edited November 30, 2011 by Sivadam
vikpaw Posted November 30, 2011 Posted November 30, 2011 Well i do want to test out the Android version of Emerge. Maybe i'll ebay it and get myself a little tablet.
enjay Posted November 30, 2011 Posted November 30, 2011 Or, even better, a Samsung Slate! I wonder if this bloke will bring me one! [ATTACH=CONFIG]12315[/ATTACH] Out of his price range, but Mrs Enjay has got me one :-)
zag Posted November 30, 2011 Posted November 30, 2011 Well i do want to test out the Android version of Emerge. Maybe i'll ebay it and get myself a little tablet. don't bother, I tried the demo and it crashed all over the place and was very slow :/
vikpaw Posted December 1, 2011 Posted December 1, 2011 don't bother, I tried the demo and it crashed all over the place and was very slow :/ Device or App?
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