This article explains what happens at each stage of the Lumary CM release cycle.
A release is a major update to Lumary CM that includes:
- new features
- improvements, and
- fixes.
Releases occur 3 to 4 times per year, depending on the scope of work included in each release.
The release process is supported by a live status page. Find out about the status of our next release.
A release cycle is made up of:
- planning new features and improvements
- developing and testing updates
- deploying to sandboxes
- reviewing and resolving issues, and
- updating production environments.
Planning new features and improvements
At the beginning of each release cycle, the Lumary team considers:
- requirements of the industry
- outstanding feature requests
- suggestions for improvements, and
- known issues that cannot be addressed in a patch release.
As part of our planning process, we also aim to consult with customers to help identify and prioritise urgent requirements.
Developing and testing updates
The planning and developing phases tend to overlap, as we continue to assess requirements throughout development. Rigorous testing is applied throughout development and prior to deployment into sandboxes for customer testing.
Deploying to sandboxes
New releases are deployed to sandboxes in the weeks prior to the release to production environments. We’ll let you know in advance when this will occur so that you can begin to plan your testing approach.
Reviewing and resolving issues
Test, test, test!
During the weeks prior to the production release, we review and resolve issues raised during sandbox testing. This is your opportunity to raise any unexpected issues caused by the new features or improvements included in the upcoming release. We strongly encourage you to take this time to test, as this helps uncover issues before they affect your live data.
We prioritise the resolution of issues raised through this process based on their potential business impact and their complexity. Issues that cannot be immediately resolved are added to a known issues repository and considered for upcoming minor or major releases.
The Lumary team will continue to test throughout this period. However, you're best placed to test your business processes against new features and improvements.
Check out our tips for testing a new release in your sandbox.
Please be aware that during this stage, we only work on resolving issues caused by the new release with existing Lumary functionality. We do not work on:
- new feature requests that arise from testing, or
- issues caused by customisations applied by a third-party or where the warranty of support has expired.
If work is required to repair customised functionality, it:
- will be assessed as a separate project
- may incur a cost, and
- will not be part of the release process timeline.
Updating production environments
After the review stage, we apply the release to production environments. Updates are staggered over several days, and we post an announcement when deployments are due to begin.
At the end of this stage, our aim is to have all production environments on the latest release version.