Model versioning is a critical capability for many of our users. Versioning allows users to make alterations to a model over time while tracking those changes. Additionally, those with robust needs for model governance have built model validation processes centered on a model version. These users had previously asked to use any version of a model in a decision flow, score test, performance monitoring report, and deployment. All of this was available by the 2024.01 release of SAS Viya.
The next request we took on was to make version bumping, when publishing or setting a champion role, optional. With the release of SAS Viya 2025.05, you can decide whether to create a new model version for these two actions. But, with this option, the use of model version locks is expanded to prevent editing published or champion model versions.
Up until this point, you could publish the latest version of a model and see that the model version went through a major version increase automatically. Or you could set a model as champion and see an automatic minor version increase. For example, you might publish version 2.0 of a model. This version would be published, and model version 3.0 would be created. Version 2.0 would be read-only, meaning that it could not be edited. This mechanism enforced an audit history for published models. Model version 2.0 in SAS Model Manager would exactly match what was published. So, if you ever wanted to see what was published in each destination, you would only need to check what was in SAS Model Manager.
Setting a model champion had a similar process. You might set a model version 1.2 as champion and see that model version 1.3 was created. Version 1.2 would be read-only, again to preserve a version history. But why is a version history of the champion important? Well, there are solutions that pull models from SAS Model Manager when they are set as champion.
All of that to say: we still need to prevent editing of any model version that is published or set as champion to preserve an audit history of model versions existing in our environments and tools. Hence, edit locking. Historically, previous (i.e., non-latest) model versions have been read-only and locked from editing. Now users can lock the latest version of a model from editing if they opt not to create a new model version when publishing or setting the champion role. When they are ready to edit the model, they can create a new major or minor version in a few clicks.
When publishing a model, users will now have a checkbox to create a new version after publishing or not. If they opt to not to create a new version, the latest version will be read-only. If users want to make edits, they need to manually create a new version. Similarly, when a user sets a model as champion, there will be a checkbox to create a new version or not. And again, if they choose not to create a new version, the latest version will be read-only, but they can create a new version when they are ready to make edits. Users who always want to create a new model version when publishing or setting the champion role can leave this box checked and can continue working as they are today. But this provides others teams the ability to control when a new model version is created. See the following demo to learn more:
What feature would you like to see next in SAS Model Manager? Let us know in the comments!
