Re: operating system upgrade

Nathan Andelin wrote:

From: "Burns, Bryan"
It takes a lot of time and effort to do an upgrade so they
want to know what it buys us.

I can see Lukas Beeler responding to this. But maybe it takes a lot of time and effort because you're not very experienced at doing it. How about outsourcing it to someone who is?

Upgrades that I've done over the past 20 years have always taken a lot of time and effort. First, from inexperience; but later, from experience.

My goal has always been that upgrades should happen without any user noticing that it was done, i.e., whatever worked previously should still work just as each user expects with no surprises. That takes time and effort.

Fundamental benefits from possible performance improvements, etc., should simply appear without anything else seeming to have changed. Incremental benefits from new features should be phased in as development allows (or as they're discovered -- "Hey, I never noticed this F-key before!").

Doing upgrades without disruption requires a definite amount of study beforehand, and often a lot of work. Changed CCSID behaviors for example? Applications need to be prepared before the upgrade, not the morning after. New controls such as "pending" joblogs or time-zone system values? System values or controlling data areas or whatever need to be set properly first. New query controls enabled? Get them handled before upgrading to whatever degree is possible.

Making upgrades painless isn't a trivial task for every upgrade. And if it isn't done for _every_ one, then getting approval for later upgrades can be difficult.

Tom Liotta