Version Flags

Teneo as a platform fully supports large projects and solutions. The Version Flags feature, supported in various stages of Teneo from testing to publishing, allows for any number of documents from a solution to be set to a 'Stable' mode. This opens up opportunities for structuring the progress of a project without affecting the published product, as well as continuing to develop more use cases without affecting the performance of the solution. The use of Version Flags can help out any project and is especially beneficial in circumstances involving large projects, quality assurance, experimenting, role separation, and much more. Additionally, all of this can be easily implemented in Teneo Studio by developers and non-developers alike.

The Version Flags can be found everywhere in the solution and look like this in the main solution window's ribbon bar:

This page will describe the concept of Version Flags in more detail.

What are Version Flags?

Version Flags give us an option to set certain documents from a solution to 'Stable'. Being set to 'Stable' means that the document has been quality assured and tested and is ready to be published. We are then able to keep developing the solution without affecting the main documents that are finished and 'Stable'. In this way, it is possible to maintain a published solution and at the same time work on expanding it without actually affecting the production version. This can be demonstrated in Tryout, where we have the option to test the 'Stable' version — i.e. the version used in the published solution — and also switch over to the 'Latest' version to see the full solution in action.

Adding a document to 'Stable' will add the following icon close to it:

Benefits of using Version Flags

• Non-intrusive, as the implementation is very straightforward and easy to detect
• Make the complex easy
• Collaborative working and separation of responsibilities and tasks
• Very easy to use inside Teneo, even for non-developers, as it can be activated with just one button click throughout your solution

Why are Version Flags so powerful?

There are many different scenarios in which Version Flags can be used, and in which they are extremely powerful. The following are just a few of these scenarios more explained:

Large projects

When working with large projects where everything is delivered in sprints, it is important to keep track of progress even if the project has to go through multiple levels of approval. If using Version Flags, the production of new additions to a solution will not be delayed. The developer can simply store and publish a 'Stable' version of the solution and continue to work on the project without having to wait for approvals, as the 'Stable' version will remain unaffected by later changes.

Quality Assurance

Version Flags can be used as a Quality Assurance (QA) tool for projects under development; the developer can create flows and the QA manager can set relevant documents to 'Stable'. This way, the QA manager will have a functional bot version that they can test out while the developer continues to work on further developing the solution. This makes it easy to sort the documents and keep the progress of the project throughout the development stage fully transparent.

Experimenting and testing

Using Version Flags allows the project manager to start experimenting with the solution. In this scenario, the project is already finished and pushed to production. The developer can now start experimenting and testing different use cases or edit the current documents to do something differently and see the outcome of this experimentation, all without interfering with the published product.

Hotfix issues

If a problem inside a solution is detected and needs urgent fixing, Version Flags can be used to solve the issue as all document versions are store in the Solution History. In this way, Version Flags can be used to further develop already 'Stable' documents that might be broken.

Role Separation

People in different roles will typically have different tasks assigned to them. The project manager can use Version Flags as a tool for role separation. For example, the 'Stable' version may be maintained by the tech-business people, while the core team may be creating new use cases to be deployed for the project.

How to use Version Flags

Version Flags are currently supported in multiple levels throughout your Teneo Studio experience. Let us now proceed with how to work with Version Flags and learn how to use them in practice in one of the use cases.