Platform / Enterprise Applications / Release calendar
The enterprise application release calendar, 2026–27.
Six platforms, one page: how often each ships, the most recent and next release, how long the preview window is, what the vendor itself says about testing, and what a release typically breaks in a regression suite. Every date and quotation is from a vendor page, cited by number. Updated quarterly.
Summary only; the cards below carry the preview windows, the vendors’ own testing guidance, and the sources.
Cadence, preview window, and what moves.
Salesforce
Cadence. Three releases a year (Winter, Spring, Summer)1
Latest. Winter ’27: sandbox preview from August 28, 2026; production instances upgraded September 4, October 2, and October 91
Next. Spring ’27: dates not yet published on Salesforce pages reviewed
Preview window. Sandbox preview starts “approximately 4-6 weeks before the production upgrade”2
What the vendor says about testing. “Test new features against your own customizations without affecting your live environment”1; keep “at least ONE preview sandbox”2
What a release typically breaks in a suite. Lightning page layouts, flows, and component changes that move or relabel fields; new release-update toggles that change default behavior; managed-package updates that land alongside the release.
Workday
Cadence. Two feature releases a year, “Yearly R1 release in March” and “Yearly R2 release in September”3, plus “ongoing weekly” fixes delivered “Wednesday and Friday afternoons (PST)”3
Latest. 2026R2, September 20264
Next. 2027R1, March 2027 (per the published cadence3)
Preview window. “Your team can test releases during the five-week release preparation window”5
What the vendor says about testing. “During testing, your team should focus on key integrations, key business processes”5
What a release typically breaks in a suite. Renamed tasks and reorganized navigation; business-process step changes; report and integration field changes; the weekly fixes, which arrive between the two feature releases and are the usual source of mid-cycle surprises.
ServiceNow
Cadence. “Two major family releases per year”6: one in spring, one in fall, each with Early Access before general availability6; patches and weekly hotfixes between7; Store application updates quarterly8
Latest. Brazil family: Early Access from September 20266,9; Australia released spring 20266
Next. Brazil general availability, late fall 20266
Preview window. Early Access precedes GA by roughly a season6
What the vendor says about testing. “As always, test your upgrades”; “Use the ServiceNow Automated Test Framework to assist you in testing your non-production instances”10
What a release typically breaks in a suite. Next Experience UI changes to forms and lists; workspace layouts; catalog item and flow changes; patches that reach production instances between families.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Cadence. Public edition: “two major releases per year in February and August”11. Private edition and on-premise: “2-year release cycle” with “Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) ... released every 6 months”12
Latest. Public edition 2608, August 202613
Next. Public edition 2702, February 2027 (per the published cadence11)
Preview window. Release upgrades are scheduled per tenant; SAP’s guidance assigns regression testing to the implementing team11
What the vendor says about testing. “Partners are responsible for regression testing”; “focus on the customized business processes”11
What a release typically breaks in a suite. Fiori app renames and relocated actions; changed value helps and field labels; authorization and scope item changes that alter what a role can see.
Guidewire Cloud
Cadence. Three releases a year, by the published record: Las Leñas (December 2024), Mammoth (April 2025), Niseko (August 2025), Olos (December 2025), Palisades (April 2026), Qusar (August 2026)14; “only the current release and the two most recent releases are supported”15
Latest. Qusar, August 202616
Next. Revelstoke; date not yet published14
Preview window. “A preview of an update 3 weeks prior to general availability”14
What the vendor says about testing. No regression-testing recommendation found on the pages reviewed
What a release typically breaks in a suite. PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, and ClaimCenter screen changes in Jutro-based UIs; product model and rating changes that alter quote values; workflow step changes that move approvals.
Insurity
Cadence. Named releases roughly every three to four months by the published record: Andromeda (November 2025), Borealis (February 2026), Cassiopeia (June 2026)17,18; no stated cadence found
Latest. Cassiopeia, June 202618
Next. Not yet published on the pages reviewed
Preview window. Not published on the pages reviewed
What the vendor says about testing. Not published on the pages reviewed
What a release typically breaks in a suite. Policy administration screen and field changes, rating and forms updates, and configuration-driven workflow changes; each carrier’s configuration is different, so what breaks is carrier-specific.
“What a release typically breaks” is our description of the change types that regression suites run into on these platforms; it is not a vendor statement and is not sourced to one.
Count back from the date.
Each platform gives you a window between preview and production: four to six weeks at Salesforce2, five at Workday5, a season at ServiceNow6, three weeks at Guidewire14. The regression cycle has to fit inside it: run the suite against the preview environment, read what broke and why, and separate application changes from test changes. In our release drift model, a release multiplies step breakage by roughly four, and about 92% of breaks recover without a person — which leaves the three in a thousand that need one, and those are the ones the window is for.
About this calendar.
How often is this page updated?
Quarterly, and whenever a vendor publishes a new release name or date. The reviewed date at the top is the date every source was last read. If you see a vendor page that contradicts a line here, tell us and we will correct it.
Why do some entries say “not published”?
Because the vendor has not published it on a page we could cite. We do not fill gaps from third-party sites or guesses; a release date on this page is a release date on a vendor page.
How should a QA team use the calendar?
Count back from each release date by the preview window, and plan the regression cycle inside it. The cycle has three parts: run the suite against the preview environment, read what broke and why, and decide what changes in the application versus what changes in the tests. Spec2RunAI’s Run Evidence Report reports that comparison run over run; see what a release typically does to a suite in our release drift model.
Does Spec2RunAI need updating for each vendor release?
No per-release update ships. Each step resolves against the live screen at run time, so interface changes in a release are handled as any other change: the step adapts under Assertion Lock and drift on passing steps is flagged every run.
Vendor pages, read 22 October 2026.
- admin.salesforce.com: Winter ’27 release countdown (three releases a year; sandbox preview and production dates; testing guidance)
- trailhead.salesforce.com: Sandbox preview module (4–6 week window; preview sandbox)
- doc.workday.com: Workday release schedule (R1 March, R2 September, weekly fixes)
- community-content.workday.com: 2026R2 feature release review
- workday.com: Release best practices guide (five-week preparation window; what to test)
- servicenow.com community, ServiceNow employee post: Releases and upgrades schedule 2026
- servicenow.com docs: Available versions and patching program
- servicenow.com docs: Store release notes (quarterly)
- servicenow.com docs: Available versions (Brazil Early Availability)
- servicenow.com docs: Upgrade guidance (test your upgrades; Automated Test Framework)
- learning.sap.com: S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition release upgrades (February and August; regression testing)
- learning.sap.com: S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition release upgrades (2-year cycle; feature pack stacks)
- sap.com: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2608
- guidewire.com: Guidewire Cloud Platform releases (release list; three-week preview; Revelstoke)
- docs.guidewire.com: Olos what’s new (support policy)
- docs.guidewire.com: Qusar what’s new (August 2026)
- insurity.com: Andromeda release
- insurity.com: Platform releases (Borealis, Cassiopeia)
Ten test cases. Untouched. On the preview environment.
We run them as written and send back the Run Evidence Report: what passed, what was verified, what drifted, and what changed since the last run.