At Workday, we’re always innovating and looking for ways to help our customers, partners, and employees be more efficient. That’s why we’re changing the naming convention and schedule of our product releases to make it easier for everyone to understand the timing of Workday’s planned releases, and better accommodate business timelines.

Here’s a quick FAQ to address the questions that might be on your mind related to the naming and scheduling changes.

Naming Changes

What is the new release naming convention?
We are changing our release naming convention to a calendar year and bi-annual release number:

  • The full name will be: Workday (calendar year) Release 1 or Release 2.
  • The abbreviated name will be: (calendar year) R1 or R2.

For example:

When is the new release name effective?
This change will be effective on the first release of calendar year 2020, planned for Saturday, March 7. The release previously known as Workday 34 will be known as Workday 2020 Release 1. Workday 33, which was released on Sept. 7, 2019, was our last release under the current naming convention.

Why are you making this release name change?
We want to make it easier for our customers, partners, and employees to quickly understand the timing of a Workday release. The year and number naming convention makes the product release simple to understand and remember.

How will you refer to previous releases?
Previous release names are not changing, up through Workday 33.

Scheduling Changes

What is the product release schedule change?
We will be changing the release schedule to occur on the second Saturday of March and September.

When is the new product release schedule effective?
Workday 2020 Release 1 will stay with the current schedule, on the first Saturday of March in 2020. The new release schedule will be effective with Workday 2020 Release 2, to be released on the second Saturday of September in 2020.

Why are you making a release schedule change?
The release schedule change is important to our customers, particularly Workday Financial Management and Workday Payroll customers, as the current release schedule (the first Saturday of March and September) can conflict with month-end close.

Does this release schedule change impact the product updates on Fridays?
No, product updates will still be released every Friday.

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