BBCRM Service Pack Release Process 2564

BBCRM Service Pack Release Process

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After the recent roadmap call announcing that bug fixes and new features would continue to be delivered via 4.0 service packs instead of a 5.0 release, we wanted to provide everyone with more insight into the service pack release process.
 
Blackbaud CRM releases bimonthly service packs for version 4.0. This means there is a rolling two-month delivery cycle for the features and fixes included in each service pack. These two-month cycles begin with planning sessions where the development teams prioritize and evaluate the work that needs to be done to fully design, develop, test, and document the work during the delivery cycle.
 
After the planning phase, the team works together to begin tackling the items that they are committed to completing. Developers research the bugs to determine the fixes for the issues. Developers and QA are closely involved early on to develop appropriate test strategies and provide detail around what test cases and automation will be executed in order to verify that the acceptance criteria are met. Once the fix is coded and built, test cases and automation ensure that the code delivered addresses the issues correctly and is of high quality and stability.
 
Once teams are complete with their work, a Core Release Team (CRT) performs a thorough testing cycle to validate the build for release. This team is dedicated to the service pack regression testing process for every release that is delivered. They are an invaluable final gate to help ensure high quality service pack releases.
 
The CRT has a very targeted and efficient approach to the testing efforts for service packs. The three-pronged approach they take includes standard manual testing, targeted manual testing, and automation execution.
 
·         The standard manual testing is a predictable and repeatable suite of tests which are executed against every service pack. These tests are based on critical processes, high-risk areas, heavily-used features, as well as a standardized base level of coverage over all functional areas.
 
·         Targeted testing is an additional customized layer of tests which are identified by the team who developed the fix. This ensures multiple subject matter experts are testing and validating all fixes throughout the process. The targeted testing focuses on areas of higher or riskier code churn for the items going into each specific service pack; therefore, the targeted testing changes from service pack to service pack.
 
·         There are several automated suites that execute during regression including unit test suite, integration suite, upgradability suites, performance/load testing suites, as well as a suite of UI keyword driven tests that run against each build. All suites must pass at 100% before testing is considered complete and the version is released. 

T
his targeted approach covers the breadth of the CRM core functionality while also allowing QA to go deep into the testing of areas where the team has been working the most. This approach allows us to quickly release versions of BBCRM with a high level of quality.
 

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