Cloud Validation of Software Customizations Before Upgrade Rollout
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Solution Overview
Problem
The commercialization of software is challenging due to the difficulty in pre-validating new software in a customer's environment and synchronizing upgrades with customizations, leading to delays and inefficiencies in integration and acceptance.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based platform provides a hosted environment for software customization and validation, allowing entities to replace or add submodules through APIs, with automated testing to ensure compatibility, enabling parallel development and testing between software development and client companies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If software is customized by end-user companies before rollout, then the software can be tailored to specific customer workflows, but the time and cost for customization increases and delays acceptance of new features
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of customizations in a hosted cloud environment before formal rollout. Customizations are tested against pre-release software versions in advance, identifying compatibility issues before they reach production, thereby reducing post-deployment customization time and delays.
Solution Approach 2:
A cloud-based hosted environment serves as an intermediary between software development and end-user customization. This intermediate platform allows automated validation of customizations without requiring extensive manual testing at the customer site, reducing both time and resource requirements.
2Productivity
If software upgrades are rolled out to all customers, then new features become available, but synchronization with customer-specific customizations becomes difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service automated validation where the hosted environment automatically tests software upgrades against stored customization configurations. This automated process eliminates manual synchronization efforts, allowing rapid rollout while maintaining compatibility with customer-specific customizations.
Solution Approach 2:
The validation process provides feedback on compatibility issues between upgrades and customizations before deployment. This feedback mechanism allows the system to identify and resolve synchronization problems automatically, enabling faster rollout without increasing complexity.
3Reliability
If manual validation of customizations is performed, then compatibility can be ensured, but expensive and lengthy periods of manpower allocation are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces manual mechanical validation processes with automated computational validation. The hosted environment automatically executes validation routines against pre-release software versions, ensuring compatibility reliability while eliminating the need for expensive manual manpower allocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The validation system performs self-service automated testing without requiring human intervention. The hosted environment automatically validates customizations against software upgrades, maintaining high reliability while reducing manpower costs and resource consumption.
4Measurement precision
If pre-release software is validated in a hosted cloud environment, then compatibility with customizations can be confirmed, but infrastructure and setup are required
Solution Approach 1:
The hosted cloud environment provides universal validation capabilities that can test multiple software versions and customization configurations simultaneously. This multi-functional platform achieves precise compatibility measurement while reducing overall system complexity through consolidation and standardization of validation processes.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods, computing systems, and computer-readable storage media are provided for automatic on-cloud integrated validations for client customizations. According to the methods, a first entity provides a hosted environment in a cloud. The hosted environment hosts a pre-release version of software. The hosted environment receives customizations to the pre-release version of the software. The customizations replace one or more submodules of the pre-release version of the software with a customized version of the one or more submodules, or add one or more new submodules to the customized version of the software. The pre-release version of the software is validated, via an automated test procedure, as being compatible with the customizations.