Release cadence: A product software upgrade study

Abstract

In this study, we focused on the process of upgrading software and analyzed the factors and influences that drove that adoption. An evaluation of adoption data of five major product families across three major industries and three operating systems revealed consistent upgrade patterns based on the type of product, its innovativeness, reliability and customer perception. Further investigation using a survey method of product engineers tasked with providing customer support for those products revealed similar patterns of the software upgrading behavior. If factors that impact software upgrading behavior are identified, they can be used as leading indicators of software adoption and suppliers of these upgrades may use this information to better plan software releases to optimize customer migration plans and improve Release cadence adjustments.