1. Beta releases and Product Management
G.Cosmo - Beta releases and Product Management
October 9th, 2002
Beta releases and Product Management
Gabriele Cosmo (CERN/IT-API)
Geant4 delta-review

2. G.Cosmo - Beta releases and Product Management
October 9th, 2002
Outline
Addressing recommendation #4.2:
“ We recommend the adoption of more frequent, though not necessarily fully
tested, “beta” releases that address important blocking problems. They
should be available to all users. These “beta” releases are in addition to
having a stable and working version of the program at any time, with a
documentation of all known bugs or deficiencies in that particular version ”
and recommendation #4.3:
“ We recommend defining and managing the complete product tree, including
documentation as well as the code, as part of a release. If the documentation
is not ready, the release cannot be deemed to be ready ”
Policy for “development releases” defined since 1998
Reviewed policy for “public stable” releases to include as product deliverables: update of user documentation and schedules
Regular monthly development releases (with release-notes) since July 2000
“Beta” development releases source publicly distributed since August 2002
October 9th, 2002
Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management
Geant4 delta-review

3. Release policy (development)
Published on the Web:
Development releases coincide with “reference development tags”
Include new developments and bug-fixes
Include detailed release-notes organized per Category domain
Available to Collaboration and locally installed
Provided on a regular monthly basis since July 2000
Frequency dictated by on-going development
October 9th, 2002
Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management

4. Release policy (stable releases)
Scheduled stable releases twice a year
Defined major or minor according to development and available bug-fixes
Interface changes only allowed in major releases
Public patches distributed according to need and severity of bug-fixes
3 public patches distributed in 2002 so far
Update of documentation tree (user manuals and design documents) required and synchronized
Global context Q/A checks required and performed
October 9th, 2002
Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management

5. Distribution of “Beta” source code
“Beta” source code made available every two months from Web
Registration of users as “Beta” testers required (automatic registration to a dedicated mailing list)
30 users registered so far since August 30th
“Beta” source code based on reference development tags
Providing exclusion of development code subject to publication rights by the authors
Detailed release notes part of the distribution
October 9th, 2002
Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management

6. Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management
Conclusions
Policy for “development releases” defined and reviewed
For “public stable” releases
to include update of user documentation and schedules
For “development” releases
to provide regularly every month
“Beta” development releases source now publicly distributed
Next step:
Enhance process of creation of release-notes to include a comprehensive description of known outstanding bugs and limitations
October 9th, 2002
Geant4 delta-review - G.Cosmo, Beta releases and Product Management