ERP/Release Life Cycle

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Release strategy 3 Releases 4 Stages 4.1 Preventive Support 4.2 Reactive Support - Phase 1 4.3 Reactive Support - Phase 2 4.4 Examples 5 Releases timeline 6 Release Team

Introduction

This article describes the Openbravo releases in terms of their life cycle and support plan: initial release, maintenance mode and end-of-life.

Release strategy

Generally speaking there are two main release strategies:

1. Time based cycles: release software with a fixed periodicity. Ubuntu is an example of this strategy, they release a new major version every 6 months.
2. Feature driven cycles: release software following the "It's ready when it's ready" strategy. Debian is an example of this strategy, they have a quality based criteria for considering a release as stable.

Openbravo uses a mixture between the time based and feature driven release strategies, following a criteria as follows:

• Define a fixed tentative release schedule.
• Define the features planned for each of those releases, specifying a minimum set of features that must be ready.
• If that minimum set of features is available Openbravo is released based on the initial schedule. In case it is not the release is rescheduled.

Releases

So far Openbravo ERP has released 4 major releases:

Version	Maturity status	Current release stage	Current release frequency	Release Date	End of life date
3.0	Production ready	Preventive Support	Quarterly	15/06/2011	undefined (*)
2.50	Production ready	Preventive Support	on demand	16/04/2009	undefined (*)
2.40	Production ready	Discontinued	Discontinued	08/10/2008	31/12/2014
2.3x	Production ready	Discontinued	Discontinued	5/11/2007	10/12/2009

Some of the columns require additional explanations of their possible values and meanings:

• Maturity status: possible values:
  • Production ready: self explanatory. Fully ready to be deployed in production environments.
  • Production ready for early adopters: if you are a new user interested in learning about Openbravo and evaluating the product, you should consider using a version in this status. If you are an existing community member interested in staying up to speed with the latest evolutions of Openbravo, you should download and install a version in this status as well. And if you are interested in deploying Openbravo for production usage in a new project, you should consider either a Production ready or a Production ready for early adopters version depending on the time frame of your implementation and your attitude towards both risk and change:
    • It is recommended to thoroughly test the planned business processes before deploying release into a production environment.
    • You should be prepared for both UI and functional changes in subsequent releases; future versions in this status could provide improvements in usability and system operation but will require users upgrading to those releases to be able to absorb significant changes.
  • In development: not recommended for end users, only for those developers willing to work on the latest version.
• Current release stage: see the stages section for details.
• Current release frequency: the patches or bug fixes are made available through Maintenance Packs (MPs). This column specifies how often this MPs are available for the end users.

Stages

ERPs are mission critical software and this is why Openbravo has designed a support plan according to this necessity. This is the root idea from which some additional key requirements flourish with the goal of creating the best possible Openbravo support plan:

• Openbravo looks to offer a rock solid ERP product to its users.
• Customers can skip a release (e.g. 2.40 customers can stay on 2.40 until 3.0).
• Customers can stay on release longer with a lower level of service. A minimum of 5.5 years.
• Openbravo also has the goal of growing rapidly in terms of enhancing the product and offering new capabilities, and therefore improving the user experience. So we must create releases at a rapid pace.

Regular Maintenance Packs (MPs) look to increase the stability of the product and fix the customer's issues according to the SLAs. In terms of timings, we have defined 3 stages, explained in detail as follows.

Preventive Support

Preventive Support lasts till the first ship date of the second to next release plus six months with a minimum duration of 30 months (2.5 years) from first ship date:

• Customers receive support according to SLA.
• Customers are entitled to report defects and expect resolution.
• Openbravo ships regular maintenance packs.

Minimum duration: 2.5 years.

Reactive Support - Phase 1

• Customers receive support according to SLA.
• Customers are entitled to report defects and expect resolution (major severity only).

Duration: 1 year.

Reactive Support - Phase 2

• Customers receive support according to reduced SLA (only critical tickets accepted).

Duration: 2 years

Examples

• 2.40 first launch date: November 2008.
• 2.40 preventive support lasts till December 2011 (first launch date of 3.0 + 6 months).
• 2.40 reactive support phase 1 lasts till December 2012
• 2.40 reactive support phase 2 lasts till 2014

Releases timeline

IMPORTANT NOTE: Openbravo 3.1 and 3.2 and fictional releases, they are not planned nor developed yet. They are listed here to illustrate the support plans for 2.50 and 3.0 if the future 3.1 and 3.2 were released in 04/2012 and 04/2013 respectively.

Release Team

See the Release Management page for more information about the team members as well as the team's mission statement, goals and roles.

Category: Release Management ERP