Yes! For the implementations I’ve been following at country levels, a slower release pace or at least the possibility to only upgrade once a year would be welcome. Not every implementation has the capacity to be agile, so there is a need for very stable releases. Even though upgrades usually have little impact on the user-side, each upgrade needs to be followed by a training - at least for administrators. Sometimes that’s a big investment for little functionality.
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Van: Bob Jolliffe bobjolliffe@gmail.com
Aan: Lars Helge Øverland lars@dhis2.org
Cc: DHIS 2 Users list dhis2-users@lists.launchpad.net, DHIS 2 Developers list dhis2-devs@lists.launchpad.net
Datum: 03/02/2017 12:56
Onderwerp: Re: [Dhis2-users] [Dhis2-devs] release cycle: from 4 to 3 releases per year
Verzonden door: “Dhis2-users” dhis2-users-bounces+gijsbert.ooms=btcctb.org@lists.launchpad.net
Lars, has there been any recent discussion over adopting an ubuntu-style approach of two types of release?
I think a lot of people running large national setups with 1000’s of users would be happy to see a long-term-service release maybe once a year with at least guaranteed security related backports for maybe two years. Then maybe two more bleeding edge releases in the year for those who really need the latest functionality and have the agility to upgrade frequently.
The numbers above can be different, but I think the idea of two types of release might have some merit. I wonder what would be the main arguments for and against. We want to continue to release-often-release-early to maintain momentum. But also provide some stability. These aims tend to work against each other 
Anyway I’d be interested to hear what people think.
On 3 February 2017 at 09:40, Lars Helge Øverland lars@dhis2.org wrote:
Hi all,
we would like to let you know that the release cycle for DHIS 2 will be be shifting from 4 to 3 yearly releases. The upcoming releases look like this:
2.27: June 1, 2017
2.28: October 1, 2017
2.29: February 1, 2018
A few observations led to this change:
-
The machinery around DHIS 2 of documentation, academy materials, release notes, web pages and so on is getting larger and the overhead of updating it for each release is becoming significant.
-
Implementing organizations seem to be lagging a few releases behind the latest on average in terms of testing and roll-out. This leads to a large demand for back-porting of fixes and even features, consuming a lot of developer time.
So by reducing the number of releases by one we hope to reduce the overhead and free more time for new development. We promise to remain agile and user-driven in spite of this change.
best regards,
Lars
–
Lars Helge Øverland
Lead developer, DHIS 2
University of Oslo
Skype: larshelgeoverland
lars@dhis2.org
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