We’re now just days away from the launch of our latest version of IFS Field Service Management, FSM 6. The IFS team is in the final stages of over 18 months of hard work and dedication, all with the intention of enabling our customers to provide the very best service in the market.
Customer advice, field service expertise, industry input
The quality of our product is always at the forefront of our minds to ensure our customers can take our latest version with confidence.
We have recently hit some important milestones in making our release available—our Early Adopter went live with IFS FSM 6 and we held our system test activity in our Milwaukee office, the home of the FSM product development team.
Quality isn’t just about finding and fixing bugs before a software release. It’s also about checking how the product ‘feels’ when put to work – does it let you do what you expect, and what you think you should be able to? Is the design complete, or is there anything that could be done to make it better?
Perceived quality is just as important as measured quality. While our product development team spend countless hours undertaking both manual and automated testing of our products, there is nothing quite like placing the application in the hands of our consultants and some of our partners from across the globe. They are the ones who implement the solutions in scenarios they encounter day-in, day-out with our customers. This exploratory testing approach enables them to learn the new application, but also ensure that the more complex configurations and processes they implement will work when our new release hits the market.
Configuration not customization
A key focus of IFS FSM 6 is the next evolution of our evergreen business application model, with over 75 new client scripting functions being added to our configuration toolset. Our testers got the opportunity to use this new capability, testing how they would implement customer project requirements that have historically required modification through configuration instead—with great results. We’re really excited about the new possibilities that the enhanced scripting capability brings—and so are the consultants that tested it!
Collaborative testing and smooth regional delivery
One of the biggest benefits to be gained from gathering people from all corners of the world in one place is the amount of knowledge-sharing and networking that goes on. The product development team get the opportunity to spend time with the testers, bringing them closer to the problems we look to solve for our customers and the value our products help create, and the testers learn how others have solved challenges for our customers similar to those they may be experiencing today.
Our FSM6 Evangelists Victor Domich & Stefan Gesele.
Another key element of our internal readiness is our evangelist program. For FSM 6, we have two evangelists who will coordinate launch activity within their regions, covering everything from training and knowledge-sharing to partner briefings and customer presentations. Victor Domich from the Americas and Stefan Gesele from Europe have both played an invaluable role in gearing us up for the launch of IFS FSM 6.
Speaking of their experience during the system test, Victor said “The most valuable asset in making this experience a success is collaboration— representation from many different areas of the business allows us to get great feedback on the design, features and functionality of our new solution and how we’ll be able to use this to address the challenges our customers face daily. IFS FSM 6 really does have the breadth and depth to meet the service needs of our customers globally.”
When asked what he thought of the quality of the release at this stage of the project, Stefan commented “It was a great experience to go through all possible processes to find even the smallest error in the workflows in IFS FSM 6— I’m very confident that our input will help to lift the quality of the release even further than it is already.”
As a parting thought, we ask all testers to answer a single question “Is the quality of the application you have tested of a sufficient standard for release?” A 100% “Yes” response proves we’re on the right track— we can’t wait to share IFS FSM 6 with you all in just a couple of days!
Do you have questions or comments?
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