Shelby Klingerman, Content Curator |
As part of Quest Experience Week JD Edwards day, John Phillips from Interstate Batteries and Chantelle Cory from LSB Industries, Inc. presented users with tips for testing an EnterpriseOne Tools release. The pair covered topics including common barriers to updating, benefits to staying current, how to prepare, options for multi-foundation, and items that should be included in testing.
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Barriers to Updating
Barriers to updating can prevent organizations from going through with an update because the process seems daunting to them. Some common barriers that organizations face include:
- Management concerns like system availability, disruption to business activities, and budget constraints
- Resource availability like having to hire experts and scheduling testing
- Disrupting regular processes like development and promotions or break fix
Benefits to Staying Current
There are several benefits associated with staying current with your JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system and Tools. Some of the benefits include:
- Easier to keep up with and manage the incremental, continuous delivery of features
- An easier time getting help with your system from Support teams
- Ability to quickly and easily adopt new functionality and bug fixes
5 Steps for Preparation
Preparation is a key part of going through an upgrade. John and Chantelle identified five steps that can help organizations be more prepared for testing and updating an EnterpriseOne Tools release.
- Review certifications (also be aware of Benefits of 64-bit for JD Edwards)
- Review the required components
- Review Tools Release Upgrade documentation
- Review Net Change documentation
- Create a task plan
It’s also important to be aware of required components like the Planner ESU, technical ESUs, ASIs, and additional ESUs required for new components. Check out the Tools Net Change documentation for details about what’s new or changing in the Tools release you are moving to.
Options for Multi-Foundation
Multi-foundation entails setting up part of your JDE to use a different “system.” It is typically set up for non-production environments (DV/PY) to allow testing of a new Tools release. There are two options for multi-foundation, and each option has its own benefits and drawbacks.
- Option 1: This multi-foundation configuration is temporary. In this option, DV and PY run on a changed port (EX: 6117) during implementation. Development and promotions to production are stopped during implementation.
- Production Cutover: Install the Tools release to PD. Change the port on DV/PY back to 6017.
- Option 2: This multi-foundation configuration can be left permanently. In this option, there are two sets of DV and PY available. The first set runs on port 6017. The second set runs on a different port (EX: 6117). Development and promotions may continue with testing occurring on both foundations. Once set up, it can be disabled/enabled and reused for future Tools releases.
- Production Cutover: Install the Tools release to the first set of DV/PY (port 6017). Then install the Tools release to PD. The port on the second set of DV/PY remains 6117.
- For package build considerations in Option 2, check out the full presentation linked below.
Items to Test
John and Chantelle compiled a list of items that should be included in the testing of an EnterpriseOne Tools release. These are items that they found useful to test at their own organizations, and individual customers may have some different features that they think should/shouldn’t be included in testing. Some of the items they recommend testing include:
- “Mission critical” applications—the applications that matter most to your business
- Typical screen/form behavior (i.e. moving grid columns, switching between tabs on power forms, multi-select, import/export Excel/Word)
- UDOs (i.e. Personalized Forms, grid formats, Cafe One, Watchlists, queries)
- EnterpriseOne Pages
- Any process that reads/writes to external/custom folders (i.e. media object attachments, multi-tray printers, custom archiving)
- Workflows
- Processes that send emails or meeting invites
- Work submitted jobs
- Scheduler or third-party scheduler
- Table conversions
- Subsystems
- UBE’s/Embedded BI Publisher
- Financial Row/Tabular Reports
- OneView (i.e. soft-coding, connectivity, report graphics)
- Integrations (i.e. Business Services, AIS, Orchestrations, third-party applications)