We have recently discussed in a few threads some strategies for the definition of a release roadmap for OFBiz; I am summarizing here the main points (old and new) because there seems to be a general agreement around them and we should be ready to officialize them and then stick to this plan:
* the release roadmap will be time-based rather than feature-based * every year a new release branch is created on April, generating a new Major Release Number in the format YY.MM (this is *not* a release) * from each active release branch we will release 2 releases every year (approx every 6 months); the names of the releases will be YY.MM.<aa> where aa is a two digits sequential number (01 is the first release, 02 the second etc..) * no more than 3 active release branches will be maintained simultaneously; for this reason we will close the oldest release branch every year sometimes before April (when the new one is created) An outstanding topic is the following: * do we still want to wait approx 1 year before releasing the first release of a branch? I don't have a strong preference but maybe a stabilization period of 6 months could be enough... but I don't know. In the plan below I am proposing a stabilization period of 10 months. As a result of the above rules, we will release approx 5 releases per year considering the following lifecycle of a release branch: * created in April * first year: stabilization; no new releases are created * second year: two releases 01 and 02 * third year: two releases 03 and 04 * fourth year: one release 05 and then the branch is closed If we name A (oldest), B and C (newest) the three active release branches, then we could stick to the following roadmap: C: new release on February and August B: new release on March and September A: new (last) release on April and then closed (when on April the new branch D is created) For example: 2015 Jan Feb C1 (after mostly 10 months of stabilization) Mar B3 Apr A5 (last); D is created May Jun Jul Aug C2 Sep B4 Oct Nov Dec 2016 Jan Feb D1 Mar C3 Apr B5 (last); E is created May Jun Jul Aug D2 Sep C4 Oct Nov Dec 2016 Jan Feb E1 Mar D3 Apr C5 (last); F is created May Jun Jul Aug E2 Sep D4 Oct Nov Dec etc... Kind regards Jacopo
