Content releases bring new updates to Flexera applications which allow customers to maintain or expand their ability to manage changes in their inventory and asset data. Clarity on what the updates contain, what improvements or enhancements they bring–along with the knowledge of the size or volume–allow customers to understand and explain changes that they will see in their inventory and asset data.

When these changes happen, they may or may not bring adverse impact to Flexera customers. When they do, it is critical for the customers to know in advance what changes are coming, and what kind of precaution or preparation they need to take to absorb them. Content Release Checklist proposes a mechanism to provide these advance notifications so that the customers are equipped with all information that they need to eliminate or minimize any potential impact. Furthermore, early communication of upcoming changes with customers encourage participation in terms of feedback, concerns or reservations, which improve the ability to ensure better outcome and prevent any unintended consequences. 

Well documented and communicated changes will serve as references to answer any future questions around accountability and transparency, especially when dealing with any unforeseen impact. The ability to trace past changes will also produce reliable data-points for any future improvement which may have dependencies on them.

Finally, content releases bring forth the result of all the hard work by the content team. They provide tremendous values and offer critical differentiators which the customers, the market, and the industry highly appreciate. Capturing all the goodies and communicating them regularly will enforce the message and strengthen Flexera's position as the de-facto standards of everything content.

With this new Content Release Checklist process, Flexera will complete a checklist in advance for all content library releases. The more potential for risk that a given content library update may have, the higher the class of update before publication will be assigned, necessitating additional checks, customer notifications and management approvals. 

• Class 1 - Major updates which introduce new content to support new product features/capabilities, modify existing content to change the behavior of existing product features/capabilities or deprecation of any existing content (along with the associated product features/capabilities) which require all customers to make necessary adjustments beforehand
• Class 2- Moderate updates which bring significant changes in customers environment and potentially adverse impact in some customers environment had they not anticipated and made necessary adjustments beforehand
• Class 3 - Minor updates as a result of "Business-As-Usual (BAU)" activities which, historically, cause no adverse impact in customers' environment except for coverage increase

Class 1 Content Release

Definition

Major updates which introduce new content types to support new product features/capabilities, modify existing content types to change the behavior of existing product features/capabilities or deprecation of any existing content types (along with the associated product features/capabilities) which require all customers to make necessary adjustments beforehand

Examples

• Technopedia (including Data Platform, IT Visibility):
  • introduction of new content types 
  • introduction of new content relationships
  • deprecation or changes to existing content types
  • deprecation or changes to existing content relationships
• ARL (ITAM, FNMS):
  
  • significant changes which will impact a majority of customers, such as changes in products from publishers which are common across most customers, including all Tier 1 publishers
  • significant changes with license impact on a high number of applications
  • significant updates to PVU points
  • significant updates to Oracle LMS scripts or Oracle option behavior
  • significant product version or edition hierarchy changes with license impact for Tier 1 publishers
  • significant application recognition changes linked to data center entries in the PURLs
• SKU/PURL/Bundle (ITAM, FNMS):
  • significant redefinitions of SKU, PURL, or bundles, especially those linked to data center PURL entries
  • any changes in PURL definitions

Checklist

All items in the Class 2 and 3 checklists, plus additional checklist items below

Class 2 Content Release

Definition

Moderate updates which bring significant coverage changes in customer environments and potentially adverse impact in some customer environments without prior notification allowing them to anticipate and make necessary adjustments beforehand

Examples

• Technopedia (including Data Platform, IT Visibility):
  
  • changes in content behavior (e.g. naming convention, mapping rules)
  • moving evidence from one release to another which impacts significant number of evidence or evidence mapping rules or highly visible products
  • lineage changes involving Tier 1/2 publishers and/or significant number of lineage changes (both software and hardware)
  • tier changes which affect Tier 1/2 manufacturers 
  • changes in Taxonomy (new categories introduced, existing categories modified/removed)
  • changes to operating systems which could easily have significant impact to customers
  • any content bug fixes tied to multiple customers
• ARL (ITAM, FNMS):
  
  • significant number of new file evidence recognition
  • any updates to PVU points
  • any updates to Oracle LMS scripts or Oracle option behavior
  • any product version or edition hierarchy changes with license impact for Tier 1 publishers
  • any application recognition changes linked to data center entries in the PURLs (not net new applications which are BAU - only changes)
  • any bug fixes tied to multiple customers
• SKU/PURL/Bundle (ITAM, FNMS):
• any removal of an application from a bundle
• any net new PURL definition
• any bug fixes tied to multiple customers

Checklist

All items in Class 3 checklist, plus additional checklist items below.

Class 3 Content Release

Definition

Minor updates as a result of "Business-As-Usual (BAU) activities which, historically, cause no adverse impact in customers' environment except for coverage increase

Every content library release will be at least a Class 3

Examples

• Technopedia (including Data Platform, IT Visibility):
  • new products/releases
  • new mappings
• ARL (ITAM, FNMS):
  • new applications
  • new evidence rules
• SKU/PURL/Bundle (ITAM, FNMS):
  • new SKUs
  • new links between SKUs and applications
  • new bundles

Checklist