PeopleSoft Learning

PeopleSoft Application and PeopleTools maintenance releases are intended to address defects,
performance enhancements, regulatory changes (such as tax updates), or security issues. In general, feature enhancements are part of new releases which require a product upgrade.


Application fixes and changes are delivered in a variety of means; these include individual postings (Patches), Bundles, Maintenance Packs and Service Packs.

Fixes

Fixes for specific issues with an application may be posted as a standalone fix intended to address that specific issue; these are generally referred to as Patches.

Patches

Patches almost always have pre-requisites that are included in the documentation for that Patch. Patches are created by development using the most recently released bundle, this means they may list that bundle as a prerequisite. There may be other pre-requisites that are also required, all pre-requisites are clearly documented in the notes for the Patch.

Bundles

Bundles are periodic accumulations of fixes resolved in that time period and applied to the application as a group. For most applications, the interval has been about every 6 weeks or 12 weeks for posting these Bundles. When Bundles are applied using Change Assistant, information about the Bundle is recorded in the Maintenance Log table for future reference. Bundles will typically require pre-requisites and occassionally post-requisites. These are documented in the notes for the Bundle. Information about the individual Report ID s associated with a Bundle is available in the supplemental information posted on Customer Connection related to that Bundle.

Maintenance Packs

Maintenance packs are less frequent updates that aggregate Bundles to minimize the number of Bundles that need to be applied. For most applications, maintenance packs are delivered once a quarter for the two most current releases.

Service Packs

Service Packs serve as a vehicle for an even larger aggregation of fixes than Maintenance Packs.
In all cases, the PeopleSoft tool Change Assistant is a valuable tool in identifying dependencies of Patches, Bundles, and Maintenance Packs.