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[eclipse-dev] Exporting the Eclipse project's development/release engineering process

I've been following the development of Eclipse for some time and I'm continually amazed as the extended team hits each projected milestone and ship date with precision. Until this experience, I was convinced that such a feat was impossible for a software project of any size and complexity.

I've read about the PMC and the published plans and all that, but I've been involved in projects that had plans and leaders that were still significantly later than expected. So... the question is how is this really accomplished? And the immediate follow-up of course is, how can this process be replicated elsewhere?

I'm also interested in where this method of development came from, was it part of OTI's culture from the beginning or did it come from IBM? Did it spring from somebody's head fully formed or evolve over time based on project management research? Does it have a name?

My current thoughts are that the key must be the milestones: immovable dates for stable deliverables every 4 to 6 weeks. There must be something about that predictability that stops feature creep and positively affects the mindsets of the team members. Is that it? What do you think?

The purpose of these questions is to allow the lessons of Eclipse to be brought home to our own groups to improve our own scheduling, quality, and predictability. So thanks in advance for any insights.

--Ed



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