IMPAC II will move to a bi-monthly release schedule beginning in January, as listed below. Releases will be mandatory for most business areas in each release cycle.

The new schedule reduces the burden on ICs by eliminating monthly updates of IMPAC II applications and provides additional testing time for eRA and IC technical staff. The Division of Extramural Information Systems (DEIS) User Support Branch (USB) has authority to hold compiled releases for any reason that benefits the user community, such as providing additional time for training or IC testing. For example, although the September 20, 2002 release will be ready for deployment on schedule, its release will be deferred until early October to allow for end-of-fiscal year processing.

In response to a request by the IMPAC II Technical User Group, a pre-release testing week will be added to each deployment cycle beginning in March. During this week, IC technical staff will be provided early access to the release for internal deployment testing. For example, the March 15 release will be available to IC technical staff on March 11. The pre-release software also will be available in a "staging" database to which any schema changes have been applied, enabling ICs to test extension systems that may be affected by such changes. Additional information on accessing the pre-release software and the "staging" database will be forthcoming on the IMPAC II Technical News listserv.