Datatel Software Update Control Procedure
Procedure Name: Datatel Software Update Control Procedure Procedure Number: ESS200 Prepared By: Nancy Severance Director, Administrative Computing Services Approved By: Paul Foley Director, Enterprise Applications Version: 1.0 Last Updated: March 12, 2012 Contents
I . Introduction………………………………………..………………………….. 4 II. Purpose…………………………………………………………..……………… 4 III. Scope…………………………………………………………………………….. 4 IV. Procedure…………………………………………………………………..... 5 A. Operational Procedures………………………………………………. 5 1. Custom Impact Assessment ……………………………………. 5 2. Installation - Development Environment ………………… 5 3. Installation - Test Environment ……………………………….. 6 4. Communication ……………………………………………………… 6 5. User Acceptance Testing and Approval…………………… 6 6. Installation – Production Environment …………………… 7 B. Unscheduled Software Update Exceptions…………………… 7 Appendix A – Servers/Applications ……..………….………………… 9 Appendix B – Datatel Remote Management Services ….. …… 10
2 I. INTRODUCTION The Office of Information Technology (OIT) maintains the Datatel Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application Colleague for the Rhode Island School of Design. OIT is responsible for extending reliable information systems and services through Datatel delivered upgrades, enhancements, extensions, integrations, and modifications to software.
The goals of the Datatel Software Update Control Procedure are to: 1* improve communication with the user community 2* reduce management involvement 3* improve software validation 4* provide historical information on updates 5* mitigate risks associated with software updates to production environment
This document defines the procedures OIT will use to install Datatel delivered software updates to the production environment. Upgrades to new releases will be treated as a project and follow the PMO process.
II. Purpose The purpose of the Datatel Software Update Control Procedure is to establish a standard approach to applying Datatel delivered software updates to production. Changes require thorough planning, careful monitoring, and follow-up evaluation to reduce negative impact to the user community and to increase the value of vital information resources. This is done through a formal process of recording, assessment, authorization, scheduling and comprehensive communications around all changes.
This procedure will ensure the implementation of change management and control strategies to mitigate risks such as: data corruption or destruction system performance being disrupted or degraded loss of functionality loss of productivity loss of integration integrity
III. Scope The Datatel Software Update Control Procedure covers vendor delivered software updates to the Datatel ERP application upon which any functional business unit of the institution relies in order to perform normal business activities. See Appendix A for list of servers/applications covered by this procedure.
Software updates may include but are not limited to: application modifications and enhancements regulatory requirements application failures IV. Procedure
3 Software updates to the Datatel ERP applications/environments shall be managed and executed according to a formal change control process. The control process will ensure updates are reviewed, authorized, tested, implemented, and released in a controlled and consistent manner; and the status of each software update is monitored.
The Director, Administrative Computing Services is responsible for ensuring the Datatel Software Update Control Procedure is implemented, maintained, and followed.
A. Operational Procedures This procedure covers the process of installing, communicating, testing, and implementing Datatel delivered software updates on a 28 day cycle. RISD contracts with Datatel for Remote Management Services (RMS) which includes a Datatel consultant assigned to RISD to install software updates. (see Appendix B)
1. Custom Impact Assessment (Day 1) The RMS consultant will create a group of all available software updates as of first day of the cycle. Prior to installing a software update group, a custom impact report is processed in the development environment by the RMS consultant and given to the Lead Application Specialist. The report is reviewed for any conflict the software updates may cause with RISD custom programming/development. If a conflict is discovered the customization will be accessed for continued need/validity. Based on the assessment, individual software updates may be held until the needed customization can be scheduled and communicated.
2. Installation – Development Environment (Day 1 - 14) The software update group is installed into the development environment by the RMS consultant. The Lead Application Specialist is notified of completion and made aware of any post-install procedures. In the two weeks following installation, the appropriate Application Specialist(s) is responsible for any post-install procedures and/or customization identified in the custom impact report. This work will be done in conjunction with the functional business user affected by the software update.
At this time, a call ticket will be created by the Lead Application Specialist to represent the software update group. The call ticket will be updated at each stage of the installation cycle.
The call ticket will include but is not limited to: . software update group details . date of installation . individual software update documentation . conflicts as a result of the custom impact report
4 . functional business unit sign-offs
3. Installation – Test Environment (Day 14) Two weeks after being installed in the development environment and with the approval of the Lead Application Specialist, the software update group is installed into the test environment by the RMS consultant. All post-install procedures associated with the software updates in that group will be completed in the test environment by the appropriate Application Specialist(s). Any custom program modifications made in the development environment as a result of the custom impact report will be moved to the test environment by the responsible Application Specialist.
An update to the call ticket with the date the software update group was installed into the test environment is made by the Lead Application Specialist.
4. Communication (Days 14-16) The Lead Application Specialist will prepare end user documentation for each software update in the group. The documentation is reviewed and assigned to the appropriate Application Specialist based on the business unit affected by the software update. The documentation is put on the Google site and forwarded to appropriate business unit representative(s). At that time, the business unit representative is notified of the software update scheduled and when user acceptance is required. This document will be attached to the call ticket representing the software update group along with the needed business unit approvals to move to production.
Reminder emails will go out to the business unit representatives on the Friday prior to the scheduled installation date. On Wednesday prior to the scheduled production installation date, an additional email will be sent to any business unit representative who has not responded with either an approval or reasoning why an update cannot move forward.
5. User Acceptance Testing and Approval (Days 16-25) The functional business user is responsible for testing the functionality and/or process(es) in the test environment as outlined in the software update documentation. This will ensure the isolation of the update and eliminate the undesired effects on the relevant business process(es).
Testing will include but is not limited to: test functionality assess impact on operations and security verify only intended impact according to the software update documentation was changed
5 At the completion of this phase, the functional business user will give written approval (physical or electronic) of readiness to move the software update to the production environment to the Director, Administrative Computing Services. The call ticket will be updated to document all approvals and an assignment will be created for the Unix System Administrator to lock users out of the system the morning of the install. If a software update does not pass user acceptance testing, the Application Specialist will work with the business unit representative to document the problems identified in testing and report them to Datatel in the form of a Datatel AnswerNet call.
No software update will be installed into production without this approval. In some cases an entire software update group could be held up if approval is not obtained. Any software update held up could impact future software updates.
6. Installation – Production Environment (Days 26-28) Two weeks after being installed into the test environment, the Director, Administrative Computing Services will communicate to the RMS consultant if the entire software update group can be installed into the production environment or if individual updates need to be omitted from the group based on functional business unit rejection.
Production environment installation will include but is not limited to: verification that all appropriate approvals have been obtained communication of update to functional business user and Application Specialist any necessary communication of the update to the greater community (emails on the Wednesday and Thursday prior to the install to notify users the system will be unavailable)
All post-install procedures associated with the software updates in the group will be completed in the production environment by the appropriate Application Specialist(s). Any custom program modifications made and approved in the test environment as a result of the custom impact report will be moved to the production environment according to the Change Management Control Procedure.
User Acceptance Testing and Approval must be completed prior to the implementation of any software update into the production environment.
B. Unscheduled Software Update Exceptions Occasionally Datatel delivers a critical software update. This would include but is not limited to an update that corrects a highly impactful functional problem or a regulatory update for Financial Aid or Payroll which is time sensitive. A software update of this nature would supersede the software update implementation cycle. All unscheduled updates require approval from the Director, Administrative Computing Services. It is the responsibility of the Director, Administrative Computing Services to escalate and obtain all
6 required approvals in an effort to implement the software update as expeditiously as possible.
Emergency software updates are defined as updates required to fix production problems affecting critical institutional business functions. Although emergency software updates in an abbreviated installation cycle, the Application Specialist will work with the responsible business unit impacted by the update to ensure appropriateness and minimize risk associated with the update. These requests must be completed as soon as possible and cannot wait until the next scheduled change window.
7 Appendix A – Servers/Applications
Servers admin.risd.edu wa.risd.edu apply.risd.edu synoptix.risd.edu reports.risd.edu datatelui.risd.edu
Applications Datatel Colleague Datatel WebAdvisor Datatel User Interface Business Objects Data Orchestrator Synoptix
8 Appendix B – Datatel Remote Management Services
Chris LaSage Datatel+SGHE Lead Technical Consultant Voice: 703-227-1178 Fax: 703-227-1137 [email protected]
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