Plone

Plone is a content management system that is built on the powerful Zope application server. The project experienced many delays with its 2.1 release. This made it difficult for Plone consultants to choose whether to use the old release or wait for the new one, and users faced many upgrade issues when 2.1 was finally released and had many changes. Partly to address these problems and partly in order to sync their releases with Zope, they decided in 2005 to move to a six month time based release cycle.

Past problems

• Releases, in particular version 2.1, took a long time to get out.
• Releases had many changes and caused some migration problems.
• Many Plone developers work as consultants building web sites. Because of the unpredictability of Plone, it was difficult for them to decide which version to use for future projects.

Solutions

• Plone moved to a time based release, partly because the Zope framework on which it builds has done so. This allows them to make use of new Zope features in their software.
• Time based releases allowed the project to implement more structure. For example, new features have to be proposed as a Plone Improvement Proposals (PLIP) which the framework team reviews.
• Deadlines have motivated developers to get their features done within a certain time frame.
• Plone consultants can decide in advance which version of Plone to use for future commercial projects.

Outstanding problems

• As the project has moved to time based releases only recently, they still need to show whether they can consistently release on time.

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is an office suite offering various integrated applications, such as a word processor and a spreadsheet. Originally developed by StarDivision, StarOffice was acquired by Sun who released it as free software as OpenOffice.org in July 2000. While Sun still maintains fairly tight control over the development of OpenOffice.org, many other vendors, in particular Novell, are important contributors to the project. The project had a fairly long release cycle of about 18 months to accommodate StarOffice, the commercial product from Sun. There were many delays, making it hard for vendors to decide which version to include. OpenOffice.org moved to a three month release cycle after their long-delayed 2.0 release, published 26 months after 1.1. The new release cycle is viewed as a positive development by contributors who get their features and fixes out to users faster. Nevertheless, at the end of 2006 a discussion took place in which a six month interval was suggested. Apparently users didn't want new features every three months and the short interval between releases put a lot of pressure on the QA team.

Past problems

• The long release cycle of 18 months, bound to the commercial StarOffice product, meant that little testing occurred for a long time because developers believed the release was far away.
• Many changes accumulated during the long development phase, making testing towards the end very difficult, and leading to a `big bang' release.
• Features were put in very late, even during the beta cycle, because of the perceived 18 month delay to the next release.
• There was very little code review. The QA team only tested the program.
• Vendors shipped unreleased versions because the significant delays during the 2.0 cycle made planning impossible.

Solutions

• After the 2.0 release, the project moved to a 3 month release interval. This model promises a tight feedback loop with users.
• Because planning is now possible, collaboration between vendors on the same code base is far easier.
• The faster release cycle and more collaboration among vendors has promoted code review.
• Motivation in the project has increased because people see their contributions getting out to users within a reasonable time.
• The release process has become more transparent, allowing voluntary contributors to take a more active part in release preparations.

Outstanding problems

• There are discussions about changing the release interval to six months. There is some evidence that some users do not want new features every three months and that the aggressive release cycle of three months puts a lot of pressure on the QA team.