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.
Version | Date | Months |
1.0 | 2002-05-01 | |
1.1 | 2003-09-02 | 16 |
2.0 | 2005-10-20 | 26 |
2.0.1 | 2005-12-21 | 2 |
2.0.2 | 2006-03-08 | 3 |
2.0.3 | 2006-06-29 | 4 |
2.0.4 | 2006-10-13 | 3 |
2.1.0 | 2006-12-12 | 2 |
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.