Release Planning
Overview
Summary of the release planning process used by RAPIDS projects.
Intended audience
Project Leads
See also
Planning process
Timing
NOTE: The processes below use the current release of M.A
, the next release of M.B
and future release M.C
(where B=A+1
, C=B+1
) for examples.
Releases are planned in two phases:
Fuzzy planning
from Issue Triage which is ongoing.Focus planning
which starts when releaseM.B
is frozen.
Release boards
RAPIDS projects use GitHub project boards for tracking releases with a customized setup and automation that is copied from existing boards.
For each project there is a Release board for each release. As an example v0.5 Release tracks the progress for the v0.5 release. Release boards are closed once a release is completed, and are labeled vM.A Release
where M
& A
are the major & minor release version numbers.
Each Release board has the following columns:
Column | Purpose |
---|---|
Issue-Needs prioritizing | Issues that have gone through the Issue Triage process and need to be prioritized |
Issue-P0 | Issues that should be worked on first |
Issue-P1 | Issues that should be worked on only if all P0 issues are complete or assigned |
Issue-P2 | Issues that should be worked on only if all P1 issues are complete or assigned |
PR-WIP | Newly opened PRs and re-opened PRs |
PR-Needs Review | PRs move automatically to this column when pending approval by reviewer |
PR-Reviewer approved | PRs move automatically to this column when approved by reviewer |
Done | Issues and PRs that are closed will automatically be moved to this column |
IMPORTANT: By leveraging the Release board for issues, Project Leads can schedule issues by placing them in the appropriate column and then prioritize issues by dragging & sorting the issues from highest priority at the top of the column to lowest at the bottom. We can also use labels on the issues/PRs to filter and prioritize work.
Using the release board
- Assigning and prioritizing work
- Scroll to the left to see all the columns labeled
Issue-*
- Re-prioritize issues in
P0
,P1
,P2
by moving issuses between columns - Move high priority issues within a column to the top; this promotes “pop off the top of the stack” development
- Scroll to the left to see all the columns labeled
- Expediting and finishing work
- Scroll to the right to see all columns labeled
PR-*
- Identify PRs that need reviewers, input from authors, and other help
- Scroll to the right to see all columns labeled
Fuzzy planning
During Fuzzy planning
issues are triaged and scheduled in their respective tracking boards. This naturally creates a pool of issues to consider from across the tracking boards during Focus planning
under the columns Future release
.
Focus planning
Once a freeze has occurred for the release that is a WIP (i.e. release M.B
), then planning for release M.C
will start.
Project Leads
- Review all issues in the current WIP release
M.B
and find issues that will slip. - Move issues that will not make the release
M.B
to the release board forM.C
. - Review each of the tracking boards and examine all issues in the
Future release
columns. - Add issues determined to be in-scope for the
M.C
release to the release board and move the issue to theNext release
column in the tracking board. - Prioritize all issues into columns
P0
,P1
, orP2
on theM.C
release board with input from project leads. - Rank issues within columns
P0
,P1
, orP2
to communicate priority for developers. - Review with team on day after release of
M.B
for feedback and input before adopting as the initial release plan.