Structural Quality Assessment Model: Lifecycle improvements coming to AIP 8.2

CAST AIP 8.2 (expected in November 2016) will introduce some significant improvements in the way the Structural Quality Assessment Model is managed. They aim at easing the installation of AIP Extensions, which are used more and more to implement new features in our product. They will also help controlling the impact of an AIP version upgrade on the measured grades, with fine grain options on the expected outcome.

On the extension front, the installation and upgrade procedures are simplified, some manual steps have been removed. And the extensions rules are also preserved during the AIP upgrade, again removing some manual actions.

Still on AIP upgrade, but for the core part of the Assessment Model, we will now offer 3 different upgrade options: install the assessment model of the new release, are erase any customization done on the current release (best to get the CAST reference grades), keep the model customizations and install the new AIP quality rules of the release (in case the rules set has been adapted to the local context, but still benefiting from the new features), and finally keeping the customizations and leaving the new rules deactivated (grades changes will be minimized since the scope of quality checks remains the same).

Last but not least, AIP 8.2 will also include a built-in diff function for Assessment Models. In one clicks you'll be able to check the difference between to sets of rules, or between the current model and the default one delivered with AIP. Very useful to investigate grades and results.