DPS Lock-Down Coming to a Temporary Halt

During early summer, when DPS was struggling to stay online, the decision was made to “lock-down” the DPS system for the rest of the summer peak season. This meant that the only changes, or updates to the DPS system would be to fix critical errors. All improvements, new features, and non-critical fixes were put on hold until peak season ended.

The system lock-down certainly helped with the stability of DPS, but we have reached the end of peak season, and DPS will soon be updated. DPS version 1.4.07 is currently planned to be put in production September 30th, 2011. This will be a large release scheduled to contain many updates, fixes, and new features that were put on hold during the summer peak season.

Among the changes scheduled to be implemented in the .07 release are improved blackout functionality, modification of the claim submit button, and a fix for a recurring invoicing transmission problem. The .07 release will probably contains many more code changes and fixes than a normal DPS release. And the more changes that are made to a system as large and complex as DPS, the more likely it is that there will be problems and errors that arise from this update.

After the .07 release, there is at least one more update (1.4.08) that is scheduled before the end of the year, and we have heard there may be one  additional one after that. (Going out on a limb here, but I am guessing that will be 1.4.09).  After the 2 or 3 updates scheduled before January 1, 2012, our understanding is that once the new year arrives, the updates to the system will stop. This time the lock-down is not due to peak season, but due to the renewal of the DPS contract currently held by SRA.

The contract for the continued building and updating of DPS has not been released yet, but should be fairly soon.We have heard that the selection and notification of the contract award recipient should take place in spring of 2012. That means that by the time the contract is awarded, and the selected contractor is able to get up to speed and able to program some updates, it will likely be at least peak season 2012 before any updates would be ready to be installed in the DPS production system. Obviously if SRA is re-awarded the contract, then the timeline should be shorter than a new contractor, but it is still hard to see how they could have updates ready to go before peak season.

Assuming the system will be locked down for the duration of the next peak season, this means that between January 1st, 2012 and late September 2012  it is likely there will be no non-critical updates to DPS. While this will certainly benefit the system stability, it does extend the timeline for seeing any improvements to the system. Of course, by the time January 1 rolls around, and we have seen 2 or 3 large updates in a compressed time frame, DPS users may be happy to have system stability over new releases.

 How do you think the upcoming updates to DPS will affect system stability? If the system is locked-down for an extended period of time in 2012, do you think that is a good or bad thing? Please use the comments below to share your opinion.

Related Posts

1. Updated Temporary Base Closings Due to Hurricane Katrina - July 18th, 2006
2. “Hotwash” Currently Reviewing Peak Season - August 17th, 2011
3. Families First Business Rules Coming Soon? - March 21st, 2005