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Summary
New versions of ClinSpark versions are released several times a year. Customers are encouraged to update regularly to each a new release. This ensures the benefit of receiving all new enhancements and fixes, and but also minimizes impact to operational and validation teams by ensuring that upgrades are each upgrade is a relatively small jump.
Here is an overview of the upgrade process:
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The ClinSpark release notes and this documentation site will provide information identifying new features and changes. This can support validation and training of staff and validation activities.
To help our customers enter into a well-coordinated and controlled upgrade cycle, we’ve outlined many of the common activities, expectations and responsibilities between customer and IQVIA teams and detailed article.
Example Customer Validation & Upgrade Process Flow
We suggest our customers review and consider these this in their own upgrade plans , and raise questions to our support team where applicable.Example Customer Validation Process Flow
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Customers should be discussing ClinSpark upgrades on a semi-frequent basis with a project manager / account manager who they are in regular contact with. Suggestions and clarifications around upgrade topics may also come from the IQVIA support team via the service desk. |
Temporary VAL Instances
We anticipate our customers' need to perform training and validation activities on a new release. To support this, customers can request via a service desk ticket a IQVIA provides a temporary VAL instance pair of the new release for this purpose.
This VAL instance is expected to be a short lived instance. It will be a clone of the PROD environment pair, with the upgraded version (build) applied. As such, is it expected to be a full preview of what the users will actually see once they accept the upgrade into PROD.
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Customers request to begin the VAL process through the service desk. In the ticket, please include the following information:
The version number and build to deploy to VAL instances
The dates for when validation activities will begin and end
Indicate if SSO is required to be configured in the VAL instance
Details for a lab test environment will be available for use in validation, if applicable
Please request the VAL instance pair only when there is an intent to devote resources to validation activities. Typically, VAL instances should be required only for a few weeks/months.
More details covering the creation of VAL environments can be reviewed here: Creating VAL Environments
PROD Upgrade
Once validation has been completed by the customer, an upgrade to PROD Main/Test environment pair can be scheduled and coordinated. All PROD upgrades are coordinated through the service desk with the assistance of an IQVIA PM.
Customers request to begin the upgrade process by submitting a service desk ticket. In the ticket please include the following information:
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Please ensure adequate warning is provided of the intended upgrade; minimum three weeks notice is preferred.
Upgrades typically can involve some downtime, usually a matter of minutes. The expected downtime and window size upgrade timelines will be discussed and agreed upon with the customer during the scheduling via the service desk ticket.
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At the agreed upon time the upgrade itself proceeds as follows:
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Hotfix Releases
When necessary, hotfix release builds are created and provided for customers. Hotfixes are often very small in scope of change and do not introduce new features. They intend to address issues having a significant impact on user experience, clinical data, security, or otherwise addressing regulatory non-compliance.
Hotfix builds are not automatically pushed to customer environments. Customers are expected to review release contents and consider acceptance into environments similar to standard upgrades. All upgrades, including hotfix releases, will always require planning and coordination between customer and IQVIA teams to ensure a successful deployment.