Release & Support policy

Release cycle and documentation

Practique has a three month cycle for MAJOR/MINOR releasesWe aim to deliver fixes and new functionality in batches.

In case critical issue (and only critical) when code change is necessary a PATCH release will be released (with appropriate version number) and made available to the clients via UAT servers. Examples of critical issues may be a discovered security vulnerability, bug in code preventing user to work with Practique without available workaround.

Each release for both iPad and Server component has unique version number. There is documentation accompanying each release which details fixes, changes and new functionality areas.

Each fix/change is linked to the Service desk issue.

Version numbers

Practique follows Semantic Versioning when assigning version numbers to releases.

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

MAJOR version when we make backward incompatible changes or fundamental changes to current functionality,
MINOR version when we add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and
PATCH version when we make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

For more information follow http://semver.org

Support & feature requests

Practique uses Service Desk (SD) as the main channel of communication. Issues in SD are triaged and resolved, notifications are sent to the relevant people.

If the issue is a request for change or results in a code change then the issue is assigned internally and will be scheduled to the next delivery batch.

Request for new features, when approved, are scheduled into the roadmap for delivery which is also visible via the knowledge base at support.practique.net.

Deployment

Fry-IT does not deploy or change production instances without the client’s explicit permission. Any changes which are delivered during the standard release process are deployed onto the UAT server.

It is the responsibility of the client to perform its own UAT testing if necessary. Client should then notify Fry-IT that it is possible to deploy a UAT version onto the production system.

Server access

If your Practique instance is hosted locally on premise then Fry-IT requires server access to production and UAT systems in order to provide support and deployment. Fry-IT does not change or upset the production system in any way without customer permission.

In case Fry-IT does not have access to the production system it can not perform monitoring, diagnosis and support duties (within or outside the exam periods) and that responsibility will therefore be transferred to the IT teams on the customer side. In this case the customer IT team will need to communicate any issues via Service Desk.

In the case Fry-IT does not have access to the production environment during the exam period, Fry-IT cannot guarantee timely responses which may lead to defaulting to paper marking during the exam.

Staying up to date

Practique release cycle allows for 4 major releases per year (one every 3 months). These releases will provide fixes, new features and updates.

Some of the updates may be required by the 3rd parties. For example when Apple releases new major version of its iOS operating system..

This release cycle provides enough time for customers to perform custom UAT testing if necessary.

Fry-IT provides standard support for up to 4 legacy versions - 1 year.

In case longer period is necessary it needs be agreed in the contract.