Best Practices

The Dell Patching works completely different than the "normal" patching.

The Dell patching catalogues only contain the latest patches and so there is no superseded.
These catalogues are also used by the Dell internal tools to deploy Dell patches.
This is a pro, since you always install the latest drivers but there is also a big flaw:
Many firmware updates are strictly incremental, so they need a minimum version.
This contains BIOS but also Docking Stations, Security Software and Raid Controllers.
If the minimum version is not installed the upgrade of these parts will fail.
For most of the Firmware this is not a real issue if you don't install many years old components (like a 10 years old raid controller into a new workstation), but for BIOS it is an issue.

For BIOS updates a "manual" update is suggested for these reasons. In addition the BIOS updater has an issue right now so you should use this workaround:

1. create a smart label for all devices of one model and the minimum version which can update to this version and less the version you want to update to.
Smart label, so all updated machines go out of the label and you don't need to take care of it anymore, just delete the label when it is empty or recycle for the nest update
2. Download the BIOS update from the Dell Page

3. Create a managed Installation for it. BIOS.EXE /s /f /r /p=YOURSECRETBIOSPASSWORD
    /s installs silently
   /f forces the installation
   /r reboots after the update preparation
   /p provides the BIOS-Password

4. Add the smart label to the MI and let it run. Have nice messages, that the update needs time and the user should not interrupt it and shutdown the PC.

If you have Bitlocker enabled you should disable bitlocker before you update it and reenable it afterwards. In that case a Script would be more effective.