by Tony Short
Roughly coinciding with Nelson Croom’s tenth birthday, we recently sent Imago 3.0 out into the world. Depending on how you look at it, Imago 3.0 could be considered as either a major leap forward, or as a further tiny step in a programme of ongoing improvement.
We usually release upgrades to Imago every few weeks – in stark contrast to software giants (like Microsoft), who tend to release new functionality once every year or two.
We can do this because the code for Imago is held on our server, and not on hundreds of thousands of PCs scattered throughout the world.
Imago is hosted centrally, using an ASP (Application Service Provider) model – now often called a SaaS model (Software-as-a-Service). This means that none of our users have to worry about rolling out upgrades on their PCs or servers. We make a change in one place and it becomes available to everyone!
That leaves us with a dilemma: at what point do we change the version name from “version 1.X” to “version 2.0” – or, in this case, from “version 2.X” to “version 3.0”?
Development of the Imago system continually moves forward by small steps - week in, week out. Each step may not, on its own, be much to write home about, but after a few months, we find we’ve come a long way since the last review.
The new features added to Imago since we launched “version 2.0.0” runs into hundreds. So after releasing Imago “version 2.9.14”, we decided that the next release should be version 3.0.0.
The rationale for this was that we’d moved to the point where every aspect of course building could be done online. In reality, we were 98% of the way towards this goal a year or two back.
Since releasing version 3.0.0, we’ve moved on to version 3.0.3, At some point during the coming year, we’ll get to the point where we move to version 3.1.0.
The three-part version number system we use comprises:
- Major version (currently 3)
- Point version (current 0)
- Build version (currently 3)
Internally, we have a more detailed version identification system, because – in reality – we make minor changes to Imago on an almost nightly basis (we also separately identify the version numbering for the Imago Learning Environment module, and the Imago Gateway/Manager module).
In case you’re wondering what changes we take into consideration when we change Imago’s version number, here’s a rundown of a few:
- New modules or optional features added to Imago;
- Enhancements added to any of the Imago modules;
- New reports added to Imago Manager
- Changes made to support new browsers, or new browser versions (including browser security updates);
- Improvements made which utilise new browser features, or to take advantage of new release of CSS or HTML);
- Fixes to glitches or bugs;
- Improvements made to the look-and-feel and user interface;
- Improvements made to allow greater customisation of Imago programmes/courses and gateways;
- Enhancements made to improve system security (e.g. improved anti-hacker defences or tracking);
- Enhancements made to improve performance, so that pages load more quickly, or reports compile more swiftly;
- Significant changes made to the online documentation;
- Consolidation work (platform changes to support future plans, which don’t initially add functionality)
Even very minor upgrades usually include enhancements to a dozen or more different parts of the Imago system, so every time we roll out a new version of Imago, there’s always an opportunity to thrash out the case for making the new release either a point version increment or a build version increment. If we ever find ourselves devoting any significant mental energy to such questions, I’ll know it’s time to remind myself to “get a life”!
Tony (Technical director version 3.0)
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