This document outlines the release life cycle for building tools addon.
It will include details about:
- The various stages of the release cycle.
- The duration of each stage of the release cycle.
- The activities that are to be conducted during each stage.
- Pre-alpha.
- Alpha.
- Beta.
- Release Candidate.
- Stable Release.
1. Pre-alpha
Pre-alpha refers to the stage of development where a given set of features is completed in preparation for testing.
Activities in this stage include normal software development with aim of meeting stipulated requirements/functionality.
Estimated Duration: 2 - 3 months.
2. Alpha
Alpha refers to the stage in the release cycle when serious software testing begins. Software at this stage has not been tested by developers and may contain serious errors.
During the course of this stage, new feature may be added, but the end of this phase sets in a feature freeze, indicating that no more features should be added.
Estimated Duration: 1 month.
3. Beta
The beta stage begins when the software is feature complete but may contain some known/unkown bugs. The goal of this stage is to reduce as much as possible bugs that may be in the software and also enhace usability. This means that arising issues such as performance should be tackled at this stage.
Estimated Duration: 2 - 3 weeks.
4. Release Candidate
Release candiate is the stage at which the software has potential to be a stable product unless significant bugs emerge.
This is a stage of product stabilization.
Estimated Duration: 1 week.
5. Stable Release
This is the last release candiate where remaining bugs have been considered acceptable.
Stable release marks the end of one software development cycle after which iteration may be made to include more features.
Estimated Duration: undefined.
Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:
MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes, MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.