by Ed Reiter
2. September 2010 07:54
After 20 plus years of Technical Support experience, there is one thing I have learned. No update to a new version of software goes according to plan. Every configuration or setup is different, and the software developer only takes the default or typical installation, configuration or setup into account when they release a new version. There will always be defects in software because, after all, the developers are human and make mistakes when coding and in design. So what is a user to do to keep the installation of a new version or update from causing problems or issues when used.
The best practice is to create a clone of your application and data in a test environment and install the new version in this environment. This way you will know if there are any things about your configuration or setup that will require special handling of the update installation or a change to your setup. Updating in a test environment can reveal issues in the new version, or your data before they are found in the production environment. This will protect the production data and resolve any problems before they become serious issues.
Testing in a test environment before implementing in your production environment may take time; but in the long run it will save much frustration, because there will be no surprises and will fix issues before they occur. This is true, especially for critical applications such as payroll.
Another piece of advice is back-up, back-up and back-up before making any changes to your system. Oh, and don't forget to restore something once and a while to make sure the back-up is working correctly.
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