Had a look at the spreadsheet, which seems to show 3 sets of date options. To make it a bit easier to grok, here are those sets of GA dates -- I've omitted the other dates so we can just focus on the best solution for when to drop GA releases.
Option 1: GA dates near end of month, 13 week cycles
2018.09 GA on 2018/09/26
2018.12 GA on 2018/12/27
2019.03 GA on 2019/03/27
2019.06 GA on 2019/06/26
2019.09 GA on 2019/09/25
2019.12 GA on 2019/12/24
2020.03 GA on 2020/03/25
2020.06 GA on 2020/06/24
2020.09 GA on 2020/09/23
2020.12 GA on 2020/12/23
Option 2: GA dates near middle of month, 13 week cycles
2018.09 GA on 2018/09/19
2018.12 GA on 2018/12/19
2019.03 GA on 2019/03/20
2019.06 GA on 2019/06/19
2019.09 GA on 2019/09/18
2019.12 GA on 2019/12/18
2020.03 GA on 2020/03/18
2020.06 GA on 2020/06/17
2020.09 GA on 2020/09/16
2020.12 GA on 2020/12/16
Option 3: 12 week cycles w/ buffer weeks
2018.09 GA on 2018/09/19
2018.12 GA on 2018/12/12
2019.03 GA on 2019/03/06
2019.06 GA on 2019/06/05
2019.09 GA on 2019/09/04
2019.12 GA on 2019/12/04
2020.03 GA on 2020/03/04
2020.06 GA on 2020/06/03
2020.09 GA on 2020/09/02
2020.12 GA on 2020/12/02
I like option 2 the best here, as GA releases land in the middle of the month, or at least a week before the usual Dec/Jan and July holidays hit. However, mid-march is also a time when parents are wrangling kids due to March Break / school closures.
Option 3 is also a good option, but I'm worried that having a release the first week of September might be impacted by Labo(u)r Day & back to school season, and it shortens the runway for the March releases, which could be impacted by people taking vacations in December through into January.
What if we split the difference between options 2 and 3 and target dates not from the (2nd to the 6th) or the (16th to the 20th) of the month, but instead the (9th to the 13th) ? So... something like this:
Option 4: 12 week cycles w/ buffer weeks (v2)
2018.09 GA on 2018/09/12
2018.12 GA on 2018/12/12
2019.03 GA on 2019/03/13
2019.06 GA on 2019/06/12
2019.09 GA on 2019/09/11
2019.12 GA on 2019/12/11
2020.03 GA on 2020/03/11
2020.06 GA on 2020/06/10
2020.09 GA on 2020/09/09
2020.12 GA on 2020/12/09
Thoughts?
Nick