Duration of beta period

First, let me say that our 7.2 release was a huge success. It was of
very high quality and well received by the community.

I want to address a concern I have heard from many of you --- the long
duration of the beta period. I think there are two major causes.
First, the quality of our releases continues to increase, and quality
takes time. We may get to a point where all we do is "polish" from
release to release. Seriously, the time we spend polishing will
continue to increase because our quality continues to increase.

Second, I think there was a certain disorganization in our previous beta
period that greatly lengthened it. We didn't set any beta deadlines, we
didn't have a web page showing the open beta items, and no one was
really pushing and rallying the troops to get the beta out. I am going
to try to correct this by giving more direction to the group and
maintaining a beta open items web page where people can go to see the
current beta status. I don't know if this will help, but I think it
should be attempted to see if more organization can help us be more
effective. Obviously, we are mostly volunteers, but I think
organization can shorten future beta periods.

Future directions
-----------------
Here is my guess on our future timetable. These dates are mostly
arbitrary, but I think it will help give people an idea of where we are
going. I think we will remain in our current development mode through
May or even July. At that time, we will enter beta in 7.3. I will
create an open items web page for the beta, and we will try to set a
timetable for the end of beta. We will not be tied to that date, but I
think setting a date will help us better focus our energies and get the
beta out the door faster.

My proposal is that we give this a try and see if it speeds up the beta
period, and makes it more enjoyable.

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us | (610) 853-3000
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