Jan 07 2019 02:59 AM
Jan 07 2019 02:59 AM
I have a question around how targeted release for specific users works for Office 365 (I am not talking about client applications). I can see for certain features which are user-centric that this makes sense.
For base platform things though I can't see how that would work for everything. If you have a fundamental change to the underlying platform then surely that is an all or nothing change for all users? It could be targeted in that it is applied for all users or if you chose certain users only then that particular change is held back until standard release? Is there any documentation for this anywhere?
Jan 07 2019 03:03 AM - edited Jan 07 2019 03:07 AM
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-worl...
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
Jan 07 2019 03:21 AM
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?
Jan 07 2019 03:37 AM
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
Jan 07 2019 06:13 AM
Jan 07 2019 06:16 AM
Thanks - I figured as much and I guess in those cases they just hold it back until ready for everyone.
The reason I am after clarification is in designing a path to live for a large corporate. There was a feeling internally that we could simply assign only some users to be on targeted release and that would give us enough of a heads up to some of the changes coming. I feel that really you need at least a whole environment before prod on Standard release which is where you test and then another one before that on targeted for everyone in order to see upcoming changes across the board.
Jan 07 2019 07:02 AM
Jan 07 2019 07:24 AM
That's a good point actually. I wasn't aware that a fair amount of stuff might bypass targeted release...it's all a bit wild west then. If you happen to build processes, both people and code based it can take a long time to get those changed in a large corp environment.
Jan 07 2019 07:55 AM
Jan 07 2019 07:57 AM
I have never been able to find a listing of which services/apps actually use the Targeted Release process. I know for sure that Teams, Yammer, PowerApps, Flow, and PowerBI do NOT.
Changes to the Security and Compliance Center services do not seem to use it.
Changes to the O365 and other Admin Centers do not use it, i.e, you have have some admins test some new admin features before other admins. However, each global admin can decide to use the new Preview version of the Admin center if they want to.
Some stuff from SPO does go through it but a lot does not.