road map planning

[Paul Spencer]

All,

I'm keen to lay out the framework for a road map for MGOS.  I have a  
few suggestions to help us get organised.  Primarily I think the road  
map should be organised around the planned release schedule and  
versions.  Central to my proposal is the concept of version  
numbering.  We do need to have a version numbering discussion, so  
I'll lay out my thoughts here.

A MGOS version number consists of 3 numeric fields separated by a  
period, X.Y.Z <tag>.  X is the major version number, Y is the minor  
version number and Z is the bugfix release number.  Version numbers  
can be tagged with a descriptive title as well, for instance BETA or  
RELEASE CANDIDATE.

Rules for changing version numbers on release need to be established,  
here is my first cut at it (but it will need to be fleshed out some  
more):

* Changes to the major version number happen when the software  
undergoes substantial architectural changes and/or has a substantial  
set of new features.

* Changes to the minor version number happen when the software  
undergoes minor architectural changes, improved performance and  
stability, some new features, or any changes to the existing  
published API.

* Changes to the bugfix release number happen for bug fixes and  
trivial changes.

Version numbers can be useful when laying out a road map, if we look  
at the road map as a series of releases.  The PSC can, at a high  
level, agree on a release schedule and slot features etc into the  
appropriate slots.

Timing of releases can be planned around the release numbers.  I  
propose that we adopt the MapServer release strategy, which is as  
follows:

1. Release a minor version approximately every 6 months regardless of  
what has been done.  This has several advantages which I will only  
bring up if the group disagrees with this strategy :)

2. Bug fix releases are then done approximately 'whenever' ...  
essentially as often as needed, but typically one release within a  
month or two of the minor release and then maybe one more before the  
next minor release - depends on the stability of the software and the  
criticality of the bug fix - sometimes MapServer waits to accumulate  
several minor bugfixes and sometimes they release with only one major  
bugfix.

3. Major version releases happen irregularly and depend on actual  
features implemented.  Essentially, enough stuff has to happen to  
make it worthwhile.

My suggestion is that the PSC should be planning on major releases  
somewhere between the .3 and .6 minor version of the previous major  
release ... between 18 months and 3 years essentially, although it  
could happen more quickly too.

Given all the preceding is ratified by the PSC (or some reasonable  
facsimile), the outline of the road map for MGOS might be:

MapGuide 1 - Current

   MapGuide 1.0.0 - Released ???

     MapGuide 1.0.1 - Released ???

     MapGuide 1.0.2 - Released Oct 14 2006

     MapGuide 1.0.3 - as required

   MapGuide 1.1.0 - December 2006

   MapGuide 1.2.0 - June 2007

   MapGuide 1.3.0 - December 2007

   MapGuide 1.4.0 - June 2008

MapGuide 2 - Future

   MapGuide 2.0.0 - Unscheduled


We would then start to accumulate wishlist suggestions and  
tentatively slot them into minor and major releases.  Due to the  
nature of open source, we can't actually predict what will end up in  
any given release because we need to find volunteers or contributors  
to get each piece done.

But if we have a plan of what we would like to see, ADSK, DMSG and  
others will be influenced by the road map and hopefully it will have  
a greater chance of becoming reality :)

Cheers

Paul

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|Paul Spencer                          pspencer at dmsolutions.ca    |
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|Chief Technology Officer                                         |
|DM Solutions Group Inc                http://www.dmsolutions.ca/ |
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