[QGIS-Developer] Release Cycle update

[Marco Bernasocchi]

Dear developers,

following up on the 3.18.0 release issue discussion [1] and my proposal
there [2], at yesterday's PSC meeting we prepared an updated release and
communication plan.

We think that adding release candidates would benefit the project a lot
since we would not be shipping code that has not been tested at large and
we would have a simple way to tell people that we're getting a new version
ready and it is now time to test it heavily.

QGIS has clearly grown a lot in the years and has become indispensable for
many users this is why we think we should do everything in our power to
deliver the best possible product.
With the addition of the release candidates in our regular release plan, we
want to take a further step in this direction and underpin the great
testing efforts driven by the community.

Unless strong objections are risen here, the new release plan beginning
with 3.20 will look like this:

Release plan:

   - .0 packages will be called “release candidate” allowing us to improve
   expectation management and collect user feedback
   - during the .0 release candidate period, the release is first branched
   and master un-frozen to allow the next cycle development to start
   - The splash screen will include “release candidate”
   - .1 would be the first “proper” release


Communication schedule:

   - .0 release → social media posts
   - .0 packages ready → “release candidate” blog post including visual
   changelog and call for testing and social media posts
   - .1 packages ready → “release” blog post and social media posts


Example with 3.20
2021-05-14

   - release of 3.16.7 (LTR)
   - release of 3.18.3
   - feature freeze in master

2021-06-18

   - release of 3.16.8 (LTR)
   - no 3.18.4 release
   - release of 3.20.0 Release candidate -> Release candidate communication
   - feature Unfreeze in master

2021-07-16

   - possibility to release a second release candidate

2021-07-16

   - release of 3.16.9 (LTR)
   - release of 3.20.1 -> Release communication

I'd like to take the opportunity to thanks everyone that gave feedback in
the above-mentioned threads thus allowing us to come up quickly with the
new schedule.

Cheers
Marco

[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/2021-February/009264.html
[2] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/2021-March/009293.html
-- 
Marco Bernasocchi

QGIS.org Chair
OPENGIS.ch CEO
http://berna.io
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