Crunch Time

[ashr]

Having lead many code armies into battler during pre-release periods, I wanted to discuss you strategy in the run up to 1.0 Public release. Not sure if this is the right place? Are you such a transparent group that you can expose all your inner workings to your Beta Users?

In any case, I suspect a few things have happened now that there are over 250 Beta users.

#1) Bug reports are coming in fast. This is good, but the current strategy of bug fixing is probably -
If it's easy to figure out, fix it now, and forget it about
If it requires re-design and doesn't happen often, ignore it until someone else encounters it
If it's hard to reproduce, ignore it until it comes up again.

#2) in boxes (both in forums and in email) are getting fuller and fuller.

#3) It's not entirely clear how far away RELEASE really is, and what exactly constitutes "ready".


Having been in this position many times, I'd like to offer some concrete suggestions on how to avoid the Death March to the release deadline.

Let me know if this discussion should occur elsewhere (and if you're expecting any real wisdom from me beyond "drink more coffee" then maybe don't listen to my suggestions, b/c I don't have any real answers, only good questions)

:captain:

 

[Badorties]

Our bug process works like this.

Users post a bug hopefully in suggs and bugs
I read it and sub a case to fogbuz
or Evan reads it and subs a case to fogbuz
Evan prioritizes the cases and works down the list like the poor overworked junior programmer that he is.
the list also has feature requests, and our planned development process
the bug is fixed, generally without anyone noticing.

1.0 will likely be in October.