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This is currently a proposed (unofficial) release schedule methodology for major releases of WordPress.
This methodology, which is described later on in this page, is used for the following reasons:
To monitor and control project development related to each release.
To help determine how best to allocate resources.
To help assess how time delays will impact the project.
To make the development process clearer to the developers, potential future developers, and the community in general.
To keep the development cycle on track.
To minimize the number of defects (bugs) in the release.
The release schedule follows the format below:
- Planning & Development Begins
- Community Feature Request
- The community is polled on what features should be worked on and tasks that should be addressed.
- Creation of Wiki page: “Version X.X”
- This page will inform the community of the progress of the development.
- Notice of Developers' Planning Meeting
- Planning & Development Ends
- Developers' Planning Meeting
- Key features are selected and assigned to developers.
- The community is asked to pick-up tickets and create patches.
- Features for the release are finalized/blessed and the release schedule is set and feature list created.
- The release schedule should follow the following format and be added to the “Version X.X” wiki page: (Note, this is only an example.)
- Jan. 1, 2010 Planning & Development Begins
- Jan. 14, 2010 Planning & Development Ends
- Feb. 14, 2010 Last Call for Enhancements
- Feb. 21, 2010 Beta Release
- Mar. 21, 2010 Release Candidate
- Mar. 31, 2010 Final Release
- Last Call, Feature Freeze, Alpha Release
- Developer post nag for uncompleted features and enhancements tickets for the release.
- Release is closed to addition features and enhancement . Bug fixes only.
- Beta Release
- Community is notified of Beta Release and enhancements that made it in.
- Bug Hunt
- Release Candidate
- Community is notified of Release Candidate
- Final Release
- Community is notified of Final Release
- Review of Performance
- Poll developers on how the development went, ask for improvements
- Poll the community, ask how their interaction with the development process could be improved.