Upstream release cadence

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After the ß-release last week the stakeholders of the Upstream client came together to discuss how app releases should be managed going forward. There are two aspects we would like to focus on. The first being to exercise the release process continuously, getting comfortable with it and make it part of normal operations. Secondly be able to continuously bring improvements to users of the software. All the while being able to react to critical bug reports in a timely manner.

For the reasons above we settled on a rolling weekly cycle. Where at a fixed point in the week whatever landed on the latest mainline will be cut and shipped. To ensure high quality of the shipped artifacts there will be separate initiatives to make large parts of the Q&A process automated.

Additionally we concluded this will be a good time to pair up with a weekly grooming of the issue backlog, to maintain a shared understanding of the priorities. As with the Q&A improvements above there will be separate initiatives to get a better understanding of what priorities are, especially with regards to technical improvements.

With all of that in mind, I’m looking for input on the questions below:

Open Questions

  • What should the weekly time release time be?
  • What should be part of our release ceremony? (links to existing documentation also suffices)
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  • What should the weekly time release time be?

How about Tuesday 11am Berlin time? Everyone is available, and it’s early in the week.

  • What should be part of our release ceremony? (links to existing documentation also suffices)

I think an optional sync meeting could be nice, with any stakeholder.

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Thanks for the update, @xla!

My suggestion is to aim to release on Thursdays after lunch. That’d bring focus to the week while avoiding the stress of releasing too close to the weekend while giving us enough slack to address any hiccups we might experience with a new release.

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Totally forgot to add my preference. I also tend to prefer Tuesday coupled with a stakeholders meeting.

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  • What should the weekly time release time be?

I think aiming for a finished release by Tuesday 15:00 Berlin time would work best for me.

  • What should be part of our release ceremony? (links to existing documentation also suffices)

Whatever we have outlined in our release docs should be sufficient.

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  • What should the weekly time release time be?

Tuesday afternoon sounds good to me as well

  • What should be part of our release ceremony? (links to existing documentation also suffices)

Besides the already mentioned doc, I am not sure a meeting on the day of the release is always necessary. The person(s) responsible for the release should maybe remind in the channel that the release is happening.

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