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Release Manager checklist

Milestone Entry

• Clearly declare a milestone release mgr at beginning of the milestone.
• Post to the devlist the target delivery schedule of the milestone.   Get consensus from the community early.
• Nail the must-have function from the community that is required to be delivered in this milestone.
• Target (or reTarget) all of the Jira defects and new function that is required for the milestone.  Move non-critical items to the next milestone early.

Milestone Middle

• Keep Jiras under control during the milestone.   Make sure new opened ones are targeted for the appropriate milestone, and the backlog is decreasing.
• Make sure the new function Jira are marked appropriately (since they will be used in the ReadMe file creation).
• Look for Jira's that have patches attached to them and get the code integrated early in the cycle.   Don't wait until the last minute.
• Make sure that you begin to obtain clean versions for all SNAPSHOTs in the build.  This can sometimes be a lengthy process as dependent packages are sometimes not available.
• Double check that the TCK machines are ready for executing the TCK.   Lay out a plan for the distributed execution of the suite.
• Now is the time to ensure that all of the licenses are valid and replacements/remediation should be done.
• Declare a candidate build to the community.
• Make sure that you remind the community that all modules should have the appropriate header file with the appropriate copyright statement. http://www.apache.org/legal/src-headers.html#headers

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Milestone Exit

• Declare a candidate build for the TCK testing to the community and work any issues that are voiced.
• Update the Readme file with the important New Function and Total defects.   Put the delivery date of the milestone in the top of the readme.
• Ensure that tooling is verified with the specific milestone candidate build (late changes can break tooling, don't ignore this step).
• Double check to make sure that the Graphical Installer works with the build candidate.
• Get some to verify that all of the samples pass without issues.
• Complete TCK testing for the build (this normally can take 2-3 weeks).
• Near the end of the TCK testing, create a new branch in the build tree for the milestone.  Remind the community that only milestone defects should be integrated to that branch.
• Declare the TCK testing has been completed, and request for a vote from the community to make this build public.   Allow at least 3 days for the vote to complete.
• After 3 days, summarize the vote and declare the milestone build as the public milestone build.
• Make approved build available in source and binary form.  Declare this to the community with excitement .
• Create Service Branch for the milestone or release (if appropriate).
• Post a congratulation note to the devlist thanking the entire team, and calling out any extraordinary efforts that were done to make it happen.

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