Text 16505, 131 rader
Skriven 2007-03-19 09:24:18 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft's lack of Quality Assurance for Outlook?
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From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


From the progression of events during the DST change last weekend, it has
become apparent to me (and others) that Microsoft has two deep fundamental
problems with its Outlook/Exchange product:

1) lack of appropriate QA procedures. 2) lack of understanding of the
functionality and interaction of Outlook/Exchange.


The lack of appropriate QA procedures is highlighted by this article:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Lastminute_DST_Patches_Create_Headaches_for_Exc
hange_Admins/1173455381

===
Last-minute DST Patches Create Headaches for Exchange Admins

While Microsoft began releasing software patches that take account of the new,
earlier shifts to Daylight Savings Time months ago, panic calls from admins
everywhere suggest that businesses may be waiting until the last minute to
install them.

As a result, an Info-Tech Research Group bulletin this morning describes,
Microsoft's technical support personnel only just this week discovered that its
various patches for Windows, Exchange Server, Outlook, and other tools should
be installed in a precise order, otherwise they may not actually be patching
networks.

According to an Info-Tech Advisor bulletin begun last Tuesday and updated
since, in response to advice from Info-Tech and others, Microsoft updated its
DST Knowledgebase bulletin to reflect a more proper order of installation for
all the various patches the company has released. However, Info-Tech cautions,
the older edition of Microsoft's instructions remain online, and is still being
linked to by other documents. As a result, some of the consulting firm's
business clients are reporting problems that may have been caused by separate
divisions of their companies following two (or more) different sets of
instructions....
===


It is apparent that the software patches referred to in that article did not
have a proper QA cycle, that the test cases do not represent how customers are
using Outlook.  Once again, Microsoft pushes lightly-tested beta software out
the door as release quality, just as in Vista's release.  Unfortunately for
many corp admins, the Outlook/Exchange DST patches^H^H^H^H^H updates *had* to
be installed by a deadline, whereas the install of Vista could be delayed until
enough customers do the beta test on the production release and a service pack
is released.

Microsoft also left the old, incorrect patching instructions up on the web,
even after issuing new, correct instructions.



The lack of understanding of the functionality and interaction of
Outlook/Exchange is illustrated by the InfoTech document cited in the above
BetaNews article:
http://www.infotech.com/ITA/Issues/20070306/Articles/Exchange2003DSTChaosSurviv
alGuide.aspx?WT.itrg_ch=sp

===
...However, many Exchange administrators are facing:

- Numerous changes in complex Knowledge Base (KB) articles.

- An unwieldy number of options for adjusting appointments with little
or no guidance for selecting the best-fit option.

- A faulty tool provided by Microsoft that was fixed less than a month
before DST starts.

- Uncertainty as to whether calendared appointments will be accurate,
even after all of the trouble and time invested in assuring a smooth
transition....


Implement in Order

Microsoft tech support engineers now recommend the following order of steps,
also found in KB 930879. This order contradicts earlier instructions still
available as of this writing in KB 931667...

Each time the rebasing tool runs, it will bump single-instance appointments by
an hour. Single-instance appointments created in Exchange 2003 or previous
editions do not have a fixed time-reference, so rebasing tools cannot tell
whether they have been adjusted or not. Recurring appointments, by nature of
their coding, do not share this problem. Avoid running the rebasing tools
multiple times on single-instance appointments....

The MsExTmz tool, when run against several thousand mailboxes, may take hours
or days to finish. Start now, or pursue a different process....


Unfortunately, Info-Tech cannot recommend that enterprises rely on Microsoft’s
instructions and tools to assure all appointments are accurately adjusted.
After reading Microsoft’s KB articles, it is clear that Microsoft itself isn’t
sure what will happen....
===

That the patches^H^H^H^H^H updates had to be implemented in a precise order,
different than the order Microsoft originally instructed, shows that the
initial patch^H^H^H^H^H update process was wrong.




Overall, Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange DST fiasco tells me that Microsoft does
not have an understanding of the Outlook customer base and how that base is
using Outlook.  If Microsoft actually had such understanding, Microsoft would
have had test cases to assure the DST fix was correct and complete.

Instead Microsoft relied upon those customers to do the testing for Microsoft. 
Since much of the DST conversion was put off until the last minute, there was
no time for Microsoft to fix the problems in their patch^H^H^H^H^H update
process.




As InfoTech says, "After reading Microsoft’s KB articles, it is clear that
Microsoft itself isn’t sure what will happen."


Amazing that corporate CIO's will rely on a product where the vendor of that
product appears to not even understand how the product works.....

  /m

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