Don’t settle into that new BI4 naming convention too comfortably quite yet. SAP is announcing a new maintenance model strategy that includes a few more terms you’ll need to become familiar with. They are aligning the BusinessObjects Product Lifecycle naming convention with the existing SAP model. The model is straightforward and will provide customers with great benefits.
XI 3.1 Maintenance Delivery | | Future BI 4 Maintenance Delivery |
Service Pack | Is now | Minor Version |
FixPack | Is now | Support Package |
Limited Availability Fix | Is now | Patch (Cumulative) |
Benefits of the alignment include a common thread of SAP release management standards and quality & governance standards for BusinessObjects. In addition, the alignment will allow for common terminology and eliminate the pain in using Limited Availability Fixes. You will no longer have to forego functionality just because you can’t keep the fix created for your system.
Now that you’ve learned the new terms, let’s get details:
Patches will be cumulative and will correct urgent customer issues. Patches will be released every 2 weeks.
Support Packages will focus on technical fixes not features. They will include platform support, customer and internal corrections. Support Packages will be released approximately every 4 months, decreasing after the first 4 years.
Minor Versions will include selected new features, enhancements, language packs, and complex customer and internal corrections. These versions are not cumulative and will require the last prior minor version before installation. For example, if BI 4.0 has 3 minor versions, you would install 4.01, then 4.02, before installing 4.03. Minor Versions will be released approximately every 9 months, decreasing after the first 3 years.
I think every customer can appreciate a clearly communicated maintenance strategy and the benefits we will see with cumulative patches. In addition, if you are in the add/remove programs section of your windows pc as much as I am, you’ll appreciate new clearly labeled product versioning for BusinessObjects as a result of this. Products will display {Product Name . Minor Release Number . Support Package . Patch}.
Once the official SAP communication is created about this, I’ll update the link here.
Cheers!
