Preparation

One-two weeks

Customer

Expresses intent to upgrade ClinSpark

Sandboxes are usually out of the scope of an upgrade as they are only normally provided during initial onboarding. If customers want to explore the latest release of ClinSpark before proceeding to formal validation they have access to a ‘community’ environment.

IQVIA PM

Inform customer that Reports/Dashboards and all other configuration items and integrations are NOT part of the regular ClinSpark SDLC and therefore needs the Customer's special attention during testing/validation of the new version. 

Key items to focus on:

• Reports / exports

• APIs

• Lab integrations

• Other integrations

IQVIA PM

Request Customer to formalise their request (if not done already) in a Service Desk ticket.

Aim to provide the timeline for the validation and a planned upgrade slot.

The ticket should contain the following information at a minimum: ClinSpark instances to be upgraded and version of ClinSpark the customer wants to upgrade to.

Customer

Create Service Desk ticket requesting upgrade of applicable instance

IQVIA Engineer

Provide/Upgrade Customer VAL environment, whatever is agreed upon and update the corresponding FHSD ticket

Validation

Three months (depending on the scope and approach taken by the customer)

Customer

Test new functionality and Configuration items / integrations in upgraded ClinSpark environment

Customer

Create Service Desk tickets for issues arrising with configuration items due to the upgrade

IQVIA Engineer / IQVIA solution specialist

If applicable, ensure Configuration issues arising from the Customer's testing/validation exercise are addressed

Responsible depends on the issue arising

Customer

Confirm to the IQVIA PM that customer validation exercise is complete, including validation / testing of the configuration items

Prep for Prod Upgrade

Time required requires discussion

Customer

Confirm to the IQVIA PM of the preferred time slot for upgrading the Customer's Prod Main and Test instances

• Customers may want to consider a suitable ‘quiet’ time in the clinic, whilst being mindful of the timezone of the applicable engineer

• Please ensure adequate warning of the intended upgrade

• Three weeks notice is preferred

IQVIA PM

Collaborate with the engineering team to check if one of the preferred time slots works for engineering, ensure alignment is reached.  Inform the customer accordingly / block the time slot chosen in the agenda of the IQVIA engineer (and wider implementation team if deemed necessary)

Customer

Create a service desk ticket formalising the request for upgrade of the Customer Prod Main and Test instances

Upgrade Prod Environment

Hours

Customer

Ensure all activity on Prod Main has ended (including lab data transfers) and confirm to IQVIA engineer in the corresponding service desk ticket

Customer

Ensure any updates to existing data is done, if needed.  

If a customer is traversing many versions of ClinSpark in an upgrade cycle, significant changes may have occurred to e.g. database tables.

For example it might be important to ensure that all sample processing paths are complete before upgrading.

IQVIA Engineer

Take backup of Prod Main and Test - should rollback be required

IQVIA Engineer

Start actual upgrade of Prod Main

Pay special attention to configuration items

IQVIA Engineer

Inform Customer (via service desk ticket) once Prod Main is upgraded

Customer

Perform final testing / validation, including QC of configuration items

3-5 hours?

Customer

Go - No Go decision

If all is well, confirm that last the validation confirmation steps, including QC of configuration items, has been performed / all is per expectations and that IQVIA engineer can start with upgrade of Prod Test instance. In case of issues, decide to revert back to the old situation/re-install the backup (< 1 hour)

Customer PM and decision makers need to be available to make decisions, should things not go as planned.

IQVIA Engineer

Start actual upgrade of Prod Test

Pay special attention to configuration items

IQVIA Engineer

Inform Customer representative (via service desk ticket) once Prod Test is upgraded

Customer

Perform final testing/validation, including QC of configuration items

Customer

Confirm that last validation confirmation steps, including validation of configuration items, has been performed / all is per expectations and that the ticket can be closed