Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management release frequency change
Microsoft has changed the release cycle for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations from seven (7) annual updates down to four (4). Starting in February 2024, from the release of version 10.0.38, the number of service updates released yearly will be reduced from seven (7) to four (4). This change is in response to customer feedback requesting longer servicing windows per release and to better align the service update release cadence.
The updated release cadence benefits provide customers with the following benefits:
- Extended preview evaluation period
- Substantially extended post-auto-update servicing phase
- The same scheduled production updates in every auto-update month’s first, second, and third weeks.
The below chart shows the release cadence in 2023 and earlier in comparison with the new release cadence starting in 2024.
With these changes, the number of allowed consecutive pauses to update will be reduced from three to one, which preserves the minimum updates per year at two.
Starting in 2024, the nomenclature for the release will be changed to help easily identify important information about the release. The first half of the label will contain the year and quarter in which the auto-update production start date is scheduled. The second part will be the product version which is shown in Lifecycle Services (LCS). An asterisk at the end of the label shows that it is a major release. For example, the major update scheduled for April of 2024 would be CY24Q2: 10.0.39*.
Changes to already published dates for 10.0.0.38 release
There will be some changes to the already released dates of the CY24Q1: 10.0.38 update (“February”2024 update). Some of the notable changes include:
- The preview release has been pushed out by 2 weeks to accommodate the transition to the new release cadence
- There is a new “Preview Update” that will incorporate customer feedback from the Preview release
- The General Availability release for self-update will now be available 1 month earlier
- The End of Service, post GA auto-updating service window, will be extended by 119 days to give customers more time to evaluate and test the updates before they are implemented
What’s next
The change to the release cadence for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is aimed at providing a better user experience to customers by offering an extended preview evaluation period and a substantially extended post-auto-update servicing phase. Click here for more detailed information on Microsoft’s Service update availability.
Additionally, many Finance and Supply Chain Management users rely on a Microsoft partner for assistance reviewing the most impactful updates. The right Dynamics 365 partner helps users identify the features most beneficial to their organization and provides training for users to maintain peak performance.
