HP Tuners Software Release Methodology

[Chris@HPTuners]

Below is a description of our current software release methodology.

At any one time in VCM Suite 2.x we have two releases running in parallel, a General release and a Beta release. General releases are even numbered and beta releases are odd numbered. eg. 2.24 is a general release and 2.25 is a beta release.

The General release is updated with new definitions, new tables & new vin/os pair support whenever a new item is added. It is the release everyone can download from their customer support login page. It is the lowest risk, currently most stable release of our software.

The Beta release contains all new features and most new vehicle support since the current general release was made available. Some things it may contain compared to the general release are:
- new features
- new vehicle support
- new calibration support for existing vehicles
- bugfixes

The Beta release by nature, is less stable than the current General release.

Once new feature testing is complete and the beta release has proven stable and met release goals, the Beta release is renamed to the General release. (eg. 2.25 beta becomes 2.26 General) and a new Beta release (2.27 in this example) begins life soon after and so the process repeats. Typically this process is planned for every 2 months, but depending on the current development cycle maybe shorter or longer.

You should never be using a Beta release unless instructed to do so by HP Tuners (eg. you have volunteered to test a new feature) and are aware of the increased possibility of issues.

A new public build, on average, is compiled every morning. So what might have been the newest public software update yesterday might not be the newest today.