Sorry Doug, I didn't mean to create more work for you :)
I'm not familiar with release reviews and the rest of the overhead of doing a minor release.
The time between the proposed releases does seem short when you factor in ramp down weeks. On the other hand, if we look at it from a user's perspective, there would be a new CDT every 4 months, which seems
like a reasonable amount of time. We will probably have to adapt our development process a bit not to slow down people too much during ramp down so that work can continue. That may meen a temporary branch during the time master is 'frozen'.
As for SR1, I agree it is late to implement this new 'process', but I can't speak for everyone, especially those that already implemented features.
Finally you ask about the frequency of release as the main issue to establish. My motivation for the 4 month schedule was to align with the train dates and avoid adding an extra release cycle to CDT. I
personally don't think a 6-month schedule instead of 4-month one is much worse but I wonder how users percieve that, in this day and age; they might appreciate quicker releases. But again, for me the main motivation is simplicity by aligning with the trains.
Marc
Thanks gang, that's pretty radical thinking :). I generally like it, but I have to bring some practicality into the discussion. I do appreciate the desire to work towards the SR dates, so let's start with that.
First of all, every minor release requires a release review. I am not willing to do one for September given how late it is. RC1 is only two weeks away. Nor do I think we have enough content to call this a minor release. Given how late in the game it is,
I prefer we stay the course and focus on a Service Release for Sept, 8.2.1.
I'm OK with lining up the next minor release 8.3 with SR-2. Mind you that leaves very little time for the minor release in June, RC0 is May 9. But with enough runway, we can figure out that out and maybe cheat a little, but no more than a couple of weeks.
We have to leave 4 weeks minimum at the end for a rampdown.
Also, we had a great discussion at the planning council meeting today about the train schedule. I don't expect things to change this year, but it very well could next and we'll have to revisit this again. One proposal, for example, was to have a continuous
delivery (or monthly) to accommodate any and all project schedules.
So independent of the train, we need to talk about how often we do want to release. Is it every 4 months as you're proposing?
Doug.
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