Release Confirmation Before Go Live on Production

Summary

This article describes a basic outline that you can follow when your development server has been upgraded so that you can test any new features and ensure existing processes are working as required for your organization.

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Check the Latest Release Notes

Be sure to check the latest release notes to review what has changed and what may directly affect your implementation of EngageIP.  New features and fixes will be presented. If you need clarification on any item in terms of detail that might affect your system, please contact LogiSense Customer Care. View the release notes here: Release Notes

Create a Critical Functionality List

Create a list of critical functionality required for your business that can be tested on the development server before upgrading production. An example is as below:

• Provisioning workflows are in place and are fully functional

• Special pricing enabled via discounts/price plans or any non standard package structures are in place and working

• Payment processing (Credit Card, eCheck, etc.) is configured and working

• Web portals that integrate with EngageIP work as expected (e.g. a end customer portal that integrates with EngageIP)

  • Tickets can be created / edited

  • Customer reports work (e.g. usage tracking)

  • Online payments process

  • User signup is functioning in the portal and creating accounts, user-packages, etc. in EngageIP

  • Contact information can be added / updated

  • All EngageIP account data exposed in the portal is presented properly and accurately (account name, bill date, balance, etc.)

• Custom Code / Page Extensions / Actions are in place and fully functional

• Any regular data that is imported can be imported without issue

Pick Multiple Diverse Accounts To Check

Pick ten or more accounts with as diverse a setup as possible that is used in your organization, that may mean the account with the most packages that need to be billed, or an account that has ten children with pooled minute buckets. These are accounts that will provide the clearest indication if there is any issue with the upgrade because of feature changes or otherwise in a new release. For example:

• Bob Smith - customer has ten packages, a monthly, a yearly, and some none recurring. After the bill run for the date of xxx , the account balance should be yyy and the package nextbilldates should all move ahead according to their period

• Jane Doe - customer has five sub accounts with pooled minute buckets. After the bill run, the customer should have transactions for $xxx of usage and yyy minutes should have been applied to the minute bucket pool

Execute a Bill Run

1. Locate a backup of your pre-bill run database. For example, today's date is February 14th, you ran the February billing on February 2nd, locate the backup made then so that you can run the February bill run again on the new release

2. Restore the database

3. Sanitize database with UPDATE queries provided by LogiSense. This is available on request and scrubs the test database of  sensitive information, server provisioning info, mail server info, customer email addresses and contact information etc.

4. If step three wasn't completed, be sure your DEV / TEST system is locked down via firewall so that credit cards can't be charged, emails won't go out from the system and services and switches cannot be provisioned to via the Job service or Event manager service should they be turned on for test purposes

5. Configure the bill run to match the production server configuration

6. Execute the bill run

7. Stop the EngageIP Billing service (this prevents the system from billing again before you have a chance to review the results)

8. Test or execute any provisioning required (provisioning may not solely be triggered by billing)

Cross Check Functionality and Check Users to Confirm Accuracy

Once the billing has completed, review the system. The outline below provides an example of how to do this:

• Login to the AdminPortal

• Check event log for any errors

• Check your list for provisioning requirements, did the system provision what it should have?

• Check your list of ten or more diverse scenario accounts. Check that the balance and charges match what were billed in your production server which is on the previous release - also confirm that the numbers are accurate aside from what the production bill run processed

• Check that you can process payments for all payment processors configured (credit card, echeck, etc.)

• Check role permissions of the staff that will login after the upgrade - Can staff access all the functions they need and do they work correctly (example, workorders, tickets, adding accounts, adding packages?). Upgrades often bring new permissions and increased security so you'll want to reconfirm with each upgrade that your role permissions are correct

• Finally, familiarize yourself with any new features listed in the release

  • Practice using any new features so that you know how they operate and what to expect from them - this may be required if you need to train personnel on new features after the upgrade to production

  • Search this knowledge base for detailed instructions on configuration or use of new features

  • Ask questions if you are not sure of the functionality