Release Model

The Oracle Utilities Delivery Team work with utility customers to ensure that scheduled releases are managed in a coordinated manner. Each release is driven from a communicated schedule which provides advanced notification. Review the following materials for important release information related to Digital Self Service - Transactions:

Release Processes

Updates to your Digital Self Service - Transactions system are applied to your environments on a predefined schedule. Updates are applied to non-production environments for testing purposes and then the updates can be applied to production environments as soon as two weeks later. You have up to four months to apply the update, complete any required testing, and identify and report any issues before the updates are applied to your production environment.

Testing and Production Environments

The following testing and production environments are used to deploy major and maintenance pack releases as applicable:

  • Implementation (IMP): The IMP environment is used for initial feature testing and troubleshooting.
  • User Acceptance Testing (UAT): The UAT environment is used to perform additional testing of feature updates. User requirements and scenarios must be tested using this environment prior to updates being applied to the production environment.
  • Production (PROD): The PROD environment is the environment that utility customers use and access. Release updates must be tested using the other two environments before deploying the updates to PROD.

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Major Release Updates

Major Release updates must be scheduled with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to coordinate the required downtime for Digital Self Service - Transactions Self-Service API patch installations to your Customer Care and Billing or Customer to Meter system.

Major release updates are mandatory, as they are required to ensure that you have all required patches and security updates. When each new update is made available, the previous release version is assigned an end of life (EOL) date, typically 4 months after GA date of the new update. The general schedule for a Major Release update is:

  • IMP: Two weeks after a Major Release date
  • UAT: 4 weeks after a Major Release date
  • PROD: 6 weeks after a Major Release date

Delivery Approach

Major Release updates are deployed to your non-production environments. After successful testing, the release is deployed to your production environment. The major steps in the process are:

Pre-Release Planning: Release materials are supplied in advance of major releases, which are highlighted in Release Model above. You must work with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to discuss feature and functionality questions and schedule the major release activities. You must schedule the deployment date by creating a service request in My Oracle Support.

Testing Updates: You must work with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to coordinate the deployment of Digital Self Service - Transactions Self-Service API patches to your Customer Care and Billing or Customer to Meter system. You must also coordinate the deployment of Digital Self Service - Transactions Cloud Service, which includes updating widget versions and the customer service representative web portal. After deployment is complete, you must conduct regression testing to confirm successful deployment. This process is first completed with the IMP environment and repeated for the UAT environment. Additional user acceptance testing is conducted with the UAT environment.

Production Update: At a coordinated time with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team, Digital Self Service - Transactions is deployed to PROD and the applicable Customer Care and Billing or Customer to Meter patch is deployed to your applicable system. You must conduct regression test to confirm successful deployment.

Maintenance Window

You must work with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to schedule deployment of Major Releases. You must create a service request in My Oracle Support to schedule the upgrade across all environments. Oracle Utilities can support deployment windows Monday through Saturday from 7 am ET to 11 pm ET.

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Maintenance Pack Updates

Maintenance Pack updates include fixes for reported issues and Digital Self Service - Transactions Self-Service API changes. Maintenance Packs are cumulative and all Maintenance Pack updates are included in a following Major Release update. The major steps to deploy Maintenance Pack updates are:

Pre-Release Planning: You must schedule the deployment date by creating a service request in My Oracle Support. Be aware that Digital Self Service - Transactions Self-Service API Maintenance Pack updates are optional. Maintenance Pack updates for these APIs are included in their applicable Major Release updates.

Testing Updates: You must work with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to coordinate the deployment of Digital Self Service - Transactions Self-Service API patches to your Customer Care and Billing or Customer to Meter system. You must also coordinate the deployment of Digital Self Service - Transactions Cloud Service, which includes updating widget versions and the customer service representative web portal. After deployment is complete, you must conduct regression testing to confirm successful deployment. This process is first completed with the IMP environment and repeated for the UAT environment. Additional user acceptance testing is conducted with the UAT environment.

Production Update: At a coordinated time with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team, Digital Self Service - Transactions is deployed to PROD and the applicable Customer Care and Billing or Customer to Meter patch is deployed to your applicable system. You must conduct regression test to confirm successful deployment.

Maintenance Window

You must work with your Oracle Utilities Delivery Team to schedule deployment of Maintenance Pack updates. You must create a service request in My Oracle Support to schedule the upgrade across all environments. Oracle Utilities can support deployment windows Monday through Saturday from 7 am ET to 11 pm ET.

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