Since June 2009, Sun Microsystems has implemented a new release model for their MySQL server. It may be almost a year now, but as a company active in software development, we still find the idea worthy of attention.
Breaking away from the traditional Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate, General Availability development model, Sun has created a new workflow which enables faster and more flexible development, accelerated patch and feature integration while maintaining a high code quality.
MySQL Server development cycle new vs. old taken from MySQL Forge
By releasing Milestone Releases every 3-6 months at a RC level of quality, Sun can break up their development of features into branches or stages that can be later re-integrated into the main development trunk. While the Milestone Releases are being tested, development continues onto the next stage of the trunk, with integration windows for new features in between. Instead of working up from Alpha with each release, Sun has streamlined their development cycle to maintain a minimum beta quality in the trunk stages as well as feature branches. This means they can achieve GA releases every 12 -18 months, with more certainty and flexibility in planning in the features requested by customers or developed by the community.
As we are constantly knee deep in software development, sometimes it’s good to take inspiration from innovative development teams elsewhere. The concept could be a winner for many other software projects out there.
0 Kommentare
Trackbacks/Pingbacks