Release Support Policy
While the focus of this document is on new release management, on-going support for existing releases is an equally important issue for clients, especially corporate clients for whom stability and risk management are more important than quick access to new functionality.
NetDimensions makes available updated builds of currently supported releases of EKP via download from its support site. Approximately once each month (depending upon activity levels), a new build is uploaded to this site for general distribution. These general release builds contain bug fixes, minor enhancements, and customizations, have undergone extensive internal QA, and contains summary level release notes regarding changes to the new build.
Our support policy regarding individual releases is as follows:
- Current release (e.g. 5.6): new support build once per month;
- Current-1 release (e.g. 5.5): new support build once per month;
- Current-2 release (e.g. 5.0): new support build once per quarter
Releases older than the above are still supported for critical fixes for up-to three years after initial release, with a new support build published as the need warrants. Non-critical bug fixes may require that the client upgrade to a later version of EKP to obtain a fix to the problem. This decision is made by Engineering based on the nature of the issue and the practicality of updating the specific release in question.
Clients with an urgent support issue may be given an advance version of a build to enable a problem to be resolved immediately. This is typically done because of:
- New customizations that need client evaluation prior to finalization;
- An urgent need for a specific fix or update;
- An early evaluation of EKP prior to its official release;
- It should be understood that in the above cases the early build has not undergone the full, official QA process (which takes about two weeks); however, we will ensure that it has passed the automated unit tests prior to being made available for early download.
