Forum Discussion
Targeted release for particular users
Hi Mark
Certainly is documentation for Targeted release - right here
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/manage/release-options-in-office-365?view=o365-worldwide
As stated in the article 'You can choose to have individuals or the entire organization receive updates early'
Hope that helps and answers your question! If so, please like and set as the solution! If not, let me know what more you need. Thanks for raising this to the Tech Community.
Best, Chris
Thanks but I should have probably been clearer in my question :)
I have read that documentation but I wanted to know if there are changes which can occur which do not go through the targeted -> standard cycle for certain users as it doesn't make sense to only have that particular change for a sub-set of users?
Sure, I get what you mean.
It always goes through the Targeted > Standard cycle as per that article. There is also the option of having users added to the insider programs
Office: https://insider.office.com/en-us/
Microsoft 365: https://insider.windows.com/en-us/signup/microsoft-365-insider-please-sign-in/
The insider programs are to test and feedback on the bleeding edge functionality prior to it entering targeted release. I would advise caution on enrolling users into insider programs because these can have a number of bugs and cause issues on machines. Some applications such as Teams have developer previews which are designed for developers to get early access to builds in order to develop and test applications.
Whether to have a subset of users on Targeted is really a personal choice. Some organisations I work with would say it is essential in order to preview functionality so it helps IT be ahead of the curve when the rest of the organisation is on the standard release. This is more prevalent in larger organisations with dedicated IT Teams Other organisations just have the whole organisation on the standard release once the functionality has been tried and tested. This is more common amongst SMB's or organisations which want a flat standardised release across all users. It is much rarer to have organisations wholly on the targeted release: these tend to be IT/Pro Service organisations.
Hope that helps!
Best, Chris