[Framework-Team] [Plone 4] Working out a timeline

[Eric Steele]

On Jun 22, 2009, at 6:31 AM, Hanno Schlichting wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 6:18 AM, Eric Steele<ems174 at psu.edu> wrote:
>> Ok, so I promised a draft timeline before our meeting on Tuesday.
>>
>> Here's what I've got:
>>
>> - Aug 16 initial implementation
>> - Aug 30 first review due
>> - Sept 13 revisions due
>> - Sept 27 review of revisions / vote
>> - Oct 4 Alpha 1 release
>> - Oct 25 Beta 1 Release (or directly after the conference?)
>> - Dec 1 Final Release
>
> This seems to be a typical roadmap derived from the end date and then
> everything else filled in. History tells us this won't actually work
> ;)
>
> Don't get me wrong, such a plan is good to have to get some common
> understanding, but usually none of the later dates in the timeline
> will be met in practice.
>
> For the later Plone 3.x releases Wichert adopted a style of only
> committing to the next two milestones on the plan as hard targets.
> Once these where reached or missed by some days or weeks, plan for the
> next dates. I'd encourage you to be flexible along those lines. In the
> end what matters more than a nailed down target of December first is
> what features and what quality we ship.
>
> Hanno

Sure, deadlines are never solid in a project of this scope with a  
workforce made up entirely of volunteers. We'll reevaluate each  
milestone as we go. I just wanted to get a general schedule out for  
planning purposes. Would I prefer to stick to this? Damn straight. Am  
I inflexible about it? Not at all.

I think 7 weeks for the initial go is reasonable; the largest of the  
PLIPs we're considering are mostly done in trunk as it is. And  
shooting for a Dec 1 release date allows us quite a bit of available  
buffer space to tack on if we need it.


Eric