Managing changes between a test and "live" Smartsheet environment

Pamela Ivey

What is the best way to handle migrating changes from a test environment to production within Smartsheet? I have significant changes to make to several of our sheets which facilitates an employee onboarding process and need to avoid negatively impacting the current daily process while the changes are being made. I would prefer not to make the changes twice, once in a test environment where they will be tested and verified, and then again in our “live” production environment.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Pamela Ivey

What you've described is what I would do - create copies of the sheet (using Save as New), implement/test the changes, then when I'm certain it will work how I want, update the live sheets by replicating what I've done on the copied sheets. I would then update the live environment at a time where I know there's low traffic (perhaps Friday evening, or even on a weekend if I have the time).

Although this does mean making the changes twice, it ensures that any mistakes can be easily corrected without impacting the current process.

The alternative would be to duplicate the current sheets, but then when you're ready to roll out the new changes, delete the previous sheets and replace them with the copied versions. You would just need to ensure that you're not deleting any new information that has occurred since you starting working on the copied sheets.

Cheers,

Genevieve