[Framework-Team] draft schedule mail

[Wichert Akkerman]

I've drafted the mail below as an announcement of the schedule we seem
to agree on. I intend to send this out to plone-announce tomorrow unless
someone objects.

Wichert.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi guys,

let me start by introducing myself: I am Wichert and I will be your release
manager for Plone 3.0. I hope you will enjoy the ride. Please take a moment
to thank Alec Mitchell for being an excellent release manager for Plone 2.5.

Now that Plone 2.5 has been out for a while it is time for to start focusing
on Plone 3. I hope you've all enjoyed your vacation: it is time to start
working again!


Here is the Plone 3.0 calendar in short:

- August 28: proposal freeze, review bundles ready for review
- September 25: framework team finished reviewing bundles
- October 8: final verdict for all bundles
- November 30: first beta release
- January 22: first release candidate
- March 12: release

And now a bit more verbose:


Phase 1: Preparing review bundles
---------------------------------
All non-trivial changes to Plone have to go through a review process. This
process starts with the writing of a Plone Improvement Proposal (PLIP).
PLIPs are implemented on subversion branches. When they are ready for review
a review bundle should be created and submitted for review to the framework
team.

The deadline for preparing those bundles is August 28. This is just four
weeks away so if you are working on, or interested in, a feature that you
would like to see in Plone 3.0 now is the time to prepare it for review!


Phase 2: framework team reviews
-------------------------------
>From August 28 to September 25 the framework team will review all submitted
review bundles. A first review is not final: the framework team may have
suggestions for improvement that make a bundle acceptable for merging. The
window for making and reviewing those improvements ends on October 8.

During this phase alpha releases will be made with the accepted and merged
bundles.


Phase 3: Plone 3.0 goes beta
----------------------------
Once all bundles have been merged the code-base needs to be polished:
tests written and improved, migrations needs to be tested on real sites,
bugs fixed, user interface polished, documentation written, etc.  

After the first beta release, scheduled for November 30, is made no more
changes will be accepted, except for bug-fixes (this includes user interface
modifications such as changing CSS classes). Everything should be stable
enough for people to start building new projects on top of Plone 3.0.


Phase 4: Plone 3.0 nearing release
----------------------------------
With all known problems fixed the first release candidate is scheduled for
release on January 22. Release candidates are almost full releases, but
have not received enough real world testing and usage to be labelled as
a final release. The success of this phase relies entirely on everyone
who is using Plone testing upgrades and new installations. 


Phase 5: Plone world domination
-------------------------------
When we reach this phase we are confident that we have created yet another
quality product. Something to be proud of and which will be even more
widely used than current Plone releases. In other words: on March 12 we will
unleash Plone 3.0 unto the world.

 
Summarising
-----------
http://plone.org/products/plone/roadmap lists a lot of exciting proposals
and I know there are more good ideas floating around. If we can all pull
together to work on those we can make this one the best Plone release yet!

-- 
Wichert Akkerman <wichert at wiggy.net>    It is simple to make things.
http://www.wiggy.net/                   It is hard to make things simple.