BexarReleaseScheduleSpec


 * Launchpad Entry: bexar-release-schedule
 * Created: 2011-11-03
 * Contributors: ThierryCarrez

Summary
This spec decides the complete release schedule for the next two releases.

Release Note
The schedule for Bexar is set in stone and a tentative schedule for C is also proposed.

Rationale
Time-based releases are all about precise milestones and stages, so we need to clearly define them, and have tentative schedules up for future releases.

User stories
Jay is a developer, he needs to plan his Christmas vacation, he uses the published schedule and is present for FeatureFreeze.

Assumptions
None.

Cadence
The next two cycles will be three-month cycles. We might consider moving to six-month cycles in the future, but we might just stay with 3-month forever.

Alignment
There is value in aligning our releases with Ubuntu's Feature Freeze and/or Final Freeze. However Feature Freeze is 4 months into the cycle and Final Freeze is 2 months after so you can only pick one. The idea behind the proposed schedule is to align with Final Freeze and have the other release releases some week(s) before Feature Freeze, at least as long as Openstack sits in universe. Then when Openstack hits main we made such an awesome job in QA that Ubuntu is confident following our trunk until the last minute.

Schedule
Pre-cycle Prep:

Cycle for Bexar:

Cycle for C:

Key

 * ODS: Openstack Design Summit, Tuesday to Friday.
 * SD: Bexar specs submission deadline (Thursday)
 * BF: Branch merge proposal Freeze, Thursday. All branches should be proposed by BF.
 * FF: Feature Freeze, Thursday. All branches should be merged by FF.
 * GF: Gamma Freeze, Tuesday. Gamma release is used to test the release for critical issues.
 * RC: Release Candidate on Tuesday. Release on Thursday. Acts of god are required to change the RC.

Milestones

 * SD: Bexar specs submission deadline (Nov 18)
 * BF: Branch merge proposal Freeze, all branches should be proposed by BF (Jan 6)
 * FF: Feature Freeze, all branches should be merged by FF (Jan 13)
 * GF: Gamma Freeze, Gamma release is used to test the release for critical issues (Jan 25)
 * RC: Release Candidate (Feb 1)
 * Release: Feb 3

Merging windows

 * Until FF: Feature and bugfix merging
 * Between FF and GF: Bugfix merging
 * Between GF and RC: Critical bugfix merging (needs release manager approval)
 * Between RC and release: Acts of god requires to change the RC (needs release manager bribing)

Ubuntu alignment

 * Bexar releases (Feb 3) a few weeks before Ubuntu Feature Freeze (Feb 24)
 * C releases at Ubuntu Final Freeze (Apr 14), two weeks before Ubuntu release (Apr 28)

Next design summit

 * Tentative date for the next design summit is the week of April 25
 * This is two weeks before Ubuntu's UDS-O in Budapest

Deliverables

 * New source tarballs should be built after each commit
 * No need to change them to make them "the release".
 * Milestones would be uploaded to Launchpad
 * No eggs, thanks.

Implementation

 * Announce Bexar spec submission deadline (ttx/dendrobates) before end of ODS: DONE
 * Get signoff for the B release schedule (dendrobates)
 * Announce B release schedule (ttx) before SD
 * Document B release process, freezes and exceptions (ttx)
 * Trigger source tarballs building automatically (soren)
 * Show/Document release week branching process (dendrobates)
 * Get signoff for the C release schedule and ODS-C (dendrobates)
 * Announce C release schedule (ttx)

Test/Demo Plan
n/a

Unresolved issues
None.

BoF agenda and discussion
See http://etherpad.openstack.org/BexarReleaseSchedule]] and [[http://etherpad.openstack.org/BexarReleaseProcess

We should consider LTS mode (have "stable" releases for which you support LTS->LTS upgrades) at some point in the future.

We should consider releasing a Beta, some time after FF.