Navigating Your Tessitura v.16 Upgrade: A Guide for Arts Marketers and Ticketers

So, you’ve been appointed the project manager for upgrading Tessitura to v.16. A smooth transition requires more than just a click. In the world of nonprofit arts organizations, where every ticket sale and donation counts, planning, communication, and rigorous testing are your best allies.

Here’s your guide to make the process as painless as possible.

Planning

How to assess your customizations, set a realistic timeline, and prepare your organization for what's actually changing in Tessitura v.16.

Choose your target upgrade date wisely. Ideally, you’ll shoot for a slower time in the year. You’ll want to give the process at least six months depending on how many customizations you have.

Before hitting the upgrade button, educate yourself on Tessitura v.16 changes. There are a lot (many very exciting) and we highlighted about some of them here. You'll want to consider their implications for your organization.

Some features may no longer work in v.16. Take inventory of your customizations; remember, the more customizations, the more time you’ll need to work out defects and bugs.

The pre-upgrade planning and preparation process is also a great time to review your business rules, ticket policies, and more. Toss out anything that’s dated, not aligned with customer behavior, or not working.

Communication

Why telling your colleagues and vendors early — and being honest about the bugs — makes the difference between a smooth transition and a system nobody trusts.

Before you jump into the process, tell your colleagues and vendors (especially if you have customizations). You don’t want to create a nightmare for someone else when they log into an upgraded system and it doesn't work. Or even worse, not having your ticket and donation pathways working.

Highlight the changes. Get everyone excited about the improvements and be honest about the bugs. Change can be hard, especially at an arts organization. You can make it easier on everyone by telling them what they need to learn to transition seamlessly.

If you don’t already have one, create a testing checklist with space to document bugs. List all the areas of your system. Save it in an easy-to-find place for the next upgrade. If this sounds overwhelming, reach out; we’ve got you covered.

It's also a great time to update your documentation with your new processes and avoid confusion as your colleagues more to new adventures or transition to new roles.

Testing

What to test, who should test it, and how to track errors so nothing falls through the cracks before your live upgrade.

You’ll first upgrade in your test environment. Test your entire system at least once before the big upgrade in your live environment and immediately post-upgrade.

Multiple testers can catch what one person might miss.

Track your error messages on that checklist – no exceptions. When the bugs show their faces, don’t panic. Assess them, understand the time and effort required to fix them.

(Bonus) Week Of Upgrade Reminder

The small but important steps that protect your ticket buyers and colleagues during the upgrade window.

Although your upgrade will ideally take place in the middle of the night, put a note in an easy-to-see location on your site to alert people that your upgrade is taking place.

Share special steps with colleagues (ex. make sure you’re logged out during a certain time frame).

(Bonus) Post-Upgrade

How to assess what's working, what isn't, and build a realistic roadmap for activating new features.

Test the basics, then all functionality, and then re-assess. What works? What doesn’t? Create a roadmap of features you want to activate.

Upgrade day isn’t just a date on the calendar – it’s a detailed process. With careful planning, communication, and testing, you can make it less painful.

Upgrades take countless hours of work. NEW Marketing Solutions can project manage your upgrade for you, so your team can focus on selling tickets and building your audiences.

Click here to schedule a mini-strategy session and explore how we can help.

FAQs

• How long does a Tessitura v.16 upgrade take for a performing arts organization?

  The timeline depends almost entirely on how many customizations your organization has built into Tessitura. A relatively standard setup with few customizations can move through the process in three to four months. Heavy customization — custom reports, integrations, modified workflows — can push that to six months or more. The planning phase alone should include a full inventory of every customization before you set a target upgrade date.

• What should performing arts organizations test before upgrading to Tessitura v.16?

  Test your entire system in the Tessitura test environment before touching your live environment — every ticket pathway, every donation pathway, every custom report, and every integration with third-party vendors. Multiple testers catch more than one person working alone. Document every error on a checklist and assess each one before moving forward. What broke? How long will it take to fix? Those answers determine whether you're ready to go live.

• What are the most common mistakes arts organizations make during a Tessitura upgrade?

  The three most common are upgrading during a busy period in the season, failing to notify vendors and colleagues before going live, and skipping the test environment phase. A Tessitura upgrade that goes wrong during a subscription push or a major on-sale can directly cost ticket revenue. Timing, communication, and thorough testing are the variables that separate a smooth upgrade from a painful one.

• Can NEW Marketing Solutions project manage a Tessitura upgrade?

  Yes. Nicole and her team have hands-on Tessitura experience inside major performing arts organizations and can manage the planning, testing, and communication process so your internal team stays focused on selling tickets and building audiences. If your organization is preparing for a v.16 upgrade and doesn't have dedicated bandwidth for the project management side, that's a conversation worth having early — not after the upgrade date is already set.

• What is Tessitura v.16 and why does it matter for arts organizations?

  Tessitura v.16 is the latest major version of the Tessitura Network's arts-specific CRM and ticketing platform, used by hundreds of performing arts organizations worldwide. Version 16 includes significant updates to reporting, the TNEW online purchase pathway, and system architecture. For organizations running customizations built on earlier versions, the upgrade requires careful planning — some features may no longer function as expected, and new capabilities need to be deliberately activated after the upgrade is complete.