Speaking specifically of the QOTS II.  I tend to go into the OC after first install and download the handful of liveries I actually fly and then pretty much never open it again.  So unless I read about an update here, how are you supposed to know if one is available?  Maybe it would be a good idea to have the FMC screen give a message on first startup that there are incremental updates to the aircraft ?  Just an idea, not sure how feasible it is.

The only way would be to run the Operations Center to check.

Mark,

For now, the best way to check is just to run the Operations Center and check the VERSION page for the product you are interested in.  That will tell you very quickly if you are up to date.

We NORMALLY announce updates here in the forum, but that will start to change as we begin pushing updates more quickly than we are currently.  We are still trying to unlearn our 20 year habit of updating in large batches- so once we get used to using the new capability, updates will happen more or less constantly.  We are working on some things that will help you to stay abreast of the changes.

 

Thanks for responding, looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

7 hours ago, rsrandazzo said:

Mark,

For now, the best way to check is just to run the Operations Center and check the VERSION page for the product you are interested in.  That will tell you very quickly if you are up to date.

We NORMALLY announce updates here in the forum, but that will start to change as we begin pushing updates more quickly than we are currently.  We are still trying to unlearn our 20 year habit of updating in large batches- so once we get used to using the new capability, updates will happen more or less constantly.  We are working on some things that will help you to stay abreast of the changes.

 

Robert, I think the small batch trickle updates is far easier to manage, bug wise. As a SAP programmer, we stopped uplifting large multi module updates where possible as it was some times difficult to know which module was the culprit. For regular flyers, any problems will soon be noticed and reported.

Our firm (Fortune 10 company) is looking into what we call a "continuous deployment model".   This should take some of the risk out of what we call the "big bang releases".   It's a bit daunting though because we're all ingrained in the old Waterfall development model, trying to go Agile, and for our department I'm the dude on the hook for figuring out this whole "continuous deployment" process.  A high-level description, as told to me, is that the developer / QA team should be able to "hit the big red button" and the change will float right up to the production servers with no downtime or outages required.  Our goal is 100% uptime.  I have my work cut out for me!

Good luck RR getting there is the hard part, but once established I'm sure we'll all be the better for it.

Mark Trainer