A while back somebody privately raised the idea of a project roadmap to me, and I’d like to propose we formally consider it as a project now that 4.0 is approaching completion.
I think there are two major benefits to agreeing a roadmap: 1) It helps us to coordinate finite project resources between multiple entities, as we can signal to each other what our priorities are, agree to prioritise items on the roadmap, and plan cross-organisation capacity necessary for each roadmap item. 2) It signals to the wider user community what to expect, facilitating confidence in project health and direction. I think this will be particularly helpful as 4.0 is announced, given the extraordinary amount of time that passed between 3.11 and 4.0. I think of a roadmap as a pre-CEP activity for upcoming releases, items thereon beginning the CEP process, with target releases being assigned by the roadmap (subject to revision) and project members opting-in to the endeavour to deliver for that release. I don’t think it should lead to work progressing only on roadmap items, but that other major endeavours (i.e. those entailing large impact to the project, or requiring lots of cross-org input) could be put on hold until the earlier roadmap items were properly resourced (or the roadmap revised). What do people think?
