Re: How soon is too soon? (was Re: Can iSeries Access to ACS migration be automated?)

On 8/8/2015 6:51 AM, Wilson, Jonathan wrote:

On Thu, 2015-08-06 at 13:56 -0400, rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

I too have seen vendors waiting too long to support the current level of
IBM i. One, I have replaced vendors who have done this and won't hesitate
to do so in the future. Two, I tend to shy away from any vendor who brags
they still support numerous old versions of the OS. These people often
have old machines that cannot upgrade to the new levels of the OS.

I'm curious, what wonderful and hidden design trait, language, or trick
prevents the vendor and/or user from upgrading the OS?

I used to work for an ISV, and one problem is that ISV customers want a
100% guarantee that they can upgrade their version of IBM i without
breaking the vendor's software. This certification requires the vendor
to run some pretty intensive tests in order to satisfy THEIR management
that nothing will break going forward.

What would you do if your management insisted on a written certificate
from you that all of your software will be 100% compatible with the next
version of IBM i? What tests would you run, and could you automate
them? Assume a big enough LPAR where you could test without affecting
production.