We will bundle bug fixes and small improvements with the quarterly data updates.
*Urgent* items that can't wait for the next data update cycle, can be submitted anytime through the Help Desk. And when in doubt, submit a ticket.
Goals for developing a process are:
- Provide value to our network partners on a regular basis in the form of bug fixes and feature improvements
- Make sure we deliver the highest priority requests first
- Establish a predictable schedule that partners can use to plan their requests
Steps
1. A month before you plan to submit a data update request, create a Help Desk ticket to send your list of prioritized bug fixes and feature requests. Over the month, we will discuss these requests and estimate their Level of Effort. If they are small, we will plan to work on them in priority order and include approximately 2-3 items per release in addition to the updated data (the exact number of items will vary based on their size and our capacity). See guidance below about what information to include in this list.
2. Submit your data update request. You can use the same Help Desk ticket. I will already have your list of prioritized items ready to go, so it will not delay our getting the data update completed.
Information to submit with your request
Here are a list of the questions I'll be using to help scope out the work requested that would be great to include in the document you send.
If it's a Bug ("Something's broken")
Include:
- A list of steps to recreate the error
- What did you expect to happen? What actually happened?
- Screenshot or video of the error
If it's a New feature / improvement ("It could be better")
Include:
- What problem are you trying to solve?
- How are you solving this problem currently?
- How will this feature/improvement help?
- How would you expect it to work?
- Any visuals you think will help illustrate what you're looking for
Please indicate the priority of each request. You can use a rough scale like "low/medium/high" so I know what is most important to focus on.