I like that model too, as long as we can still deliver more than one release a year and we allow more people to have commit access to the sandbox area for more collaboration on major enhancements and changes...

-Donald


Jason Dillon wrote:
I think SuSE-like would be a good idea too.
--jason


-----Original Message-----
From: "Aaron Mulder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 09:34:39 To:[email protected]
Subject: Re: Frustrations of a Release Manager

In the spirit of greater openness and communication, please elaborate
on 'thing have been "quietly" injected into Geronimo'.

As far as I can tell, the main source of the 1.1 delay was that the
module ID changes (new syntax, groupless or versionless dependencies,
etc.) caused a ton of problems, in the TCK, the deployment tools, the
console, and so on.  When the original deadline came, the product was
not stable enough to ship.  I'm sure that some of the features I've
worked on have contributed -- mainly the keystore changes, which
caused some TCK failures until we updated the keystore configuration
for it.  Still, we've talked about some of the reasons for this, and I
think we all want to try to make the 1.2 changes more incremental and
keep the TCK passing at all times to avoid major disconnects as we
move forward.

As far as the release schedule goes, I'm disappointed that we missed
the deadline, and then didn't really update our road map...  If there
was a new target date or plan it seemed pretty informal -- there
didn't seem to be anything posted to the dev list or the web site, etc
(though based on Jeff's comments it sounds like there was and I missed
it?).  Now we're trying to put out a release when our only
preview/release candidate has been available for less than a week.  I
contrast that to the SuSE process where there were at least 12
well-defined test builds (9 or more beta builds and 3 or more RC
builds) at well-defined interrvals.  As a user, I certainly
appreciated that I could get and try the latest, submit bug reports,
check the release calendar for the date of the next test build, get it
and test the fixes, etc.  I don't think that one build and 72 hours is
sufficient to convince me that 1.1 is a stable release.  I don't feel
strongly enough to override a majority opinion, if there is one, but
I'd like to try a much more SuSE-like release strategy for 1.2 and see
how it goes.  If that doesn't work so well either, we'll regroup and
try something different for the release after.

Thanks,
    Aaron

On 6/9/06, Jeff Genender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


Bruce Snyder wrote:

On 6/8/06, Aaron Mulder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


I think it will help to have the schedule of the release.  No one can
claim IBM has a secret agenda if the time line is laid out there.  And
it's easy to wink if no one has any idea what the deadlines we're
working toward are.

I agree with Aaron here - publicity of not only the timeline (i.e., a
calendar of release schedules maybe) but also the Road Map may help on
all fronts. IMO we should consider publishing and continually
revisiting both of these items. I know that this won't be a popular
suggestion on the committer side of things because we are a volunteer
organization, but it would most certainly help our user community
immensely.

I have to disagree here.  Although I absolutely agree a roadmap is
helpful and trackable, the timeline and release issues that Matt has
talked about is clearly an issue.  On these lists, Matt has made things
extremely clear regarding when our releases should be, along with group
consensus, and thing have been "quietly" injected into Geronimo.  I
share Matt's feelings and frustrations.

Minimally, if we cannot hold to a simple date based on agreement on
these lists, a roadmap, although helpful, will surely not be a panacea.

It is also my hope that there are not private emails going around
talking about "secret" agendas.  This would dismay me as I fully expect
that we are all adult enough to share our feelings with each other in
these lists.  If an email like this is being passed around, then we
clearly need to be working on our communication skills and have a long
way to go on learning to work with each other as a team.  I think
communication is the primary thing we need to deal with.

Jeff


A wiki page of the Road Map along with a rough timeline would be a
good start. I also think that tying the Road Map to a timeline will
cause people to more closely examine the time a particular feature
might require. But like the Linux kernel release schedule, determining
any kind of regular release schedule may prove to be quite difficult.
But IMO it can't hurt to have goals.

Just my $0.02.

Bruce

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