Tag Archives: planning

Josepha 9:51 pm on September 3, 2021
Tags: , planning   

WordPress 5.9 Planning Roundup

Happy September no matter where you are in the world! Since we’re halfway through the alpha period for the next big release of WordPress, it’s time to gather all the pieces of planning into one place. This post will include all the best guesses and targets for dates, features, and squads.

This release will follow the same general cadence as the other releases this year, with a long alpha period (132 days) and a short betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. period (14 days) before the release candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). phase.

Proposed WordPress 5.9 Schedule

These are my best guesses at the milestones:

MilestoneDateDays from
Alpha (trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. open for 5.9 release)June 30, 2021
Go/no go DateOctober 12, 2021
October 14, 2021		104 days after Alpha
Feature freeze/Bug FixesNovember 9, 202142 days after go/no go
Beta 1November 16, 20217 days after Feature Freeze
Release Candidate 1November 30, 202114 days after Beta 1
General releaseDecember 14, 202114 days after RC1
WP5.9 Schedule

This schedule puts Beta 1 the week of a major US holiday and a few major commerce dates worldwide. It does avoid putting RC1 during that week.

Proposed WordPress 5.9 Scope

The main goal for 2021 is getting full site editing to all WordPress users. For WP5.9 the following features are in the suggested roadmap:

  • Blocks + intrinsic web design
  • Navigation menus
  • Interface for theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML.
  • Refining editing flows for blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes
  • New default theme
  • Additional design tools

There are also a few roadmap hopefuls out there.

  • Pattern insertion + creation
  • Unzip/Rollback Failsafes
  • PHPUnit Tests
  • Improved compatibility with PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8.0 and 8.1

Proposed WordPress 5.9 Leads

  • Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release.: Matt Mullenweg
  • Release Coordinators:
  • Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Lead:
  • Editor Tech:
  • Editor Design:
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech:
  • Theme Lead:
  • Technical Writer: Jonathan Bossenger
  • Docs Lead:
  • Marketing & Comms: Josepha Haden
  • AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Lead:
  • Test Lead:

How to help!

I think we will need a slightly larger release squad for this final release of the year, so I’m opening calls for volunteers. As we approach the go/no go date and get a better idea of what features will really land in the release, we’ll get more squad leads assigned.

However, there are a couple of roles we really could use some volunteers for right now:

  1. Triage Lead
  2. Release Coordinators

If you’re interested in lending a hand, please share your interest in the comments!

Props to @francina for early versions of this post, and @jeffpaul + @desrosj for wrestling calendars with me.

#5-9, #planning

Jeffrey Paul 1:53 am on May 5, 2021
Tags: , planning,   

WordPress 5.8: What’s on your to-do list?

With the 5.8 release scheduled for 20 July 2021, I’d like to understand what work folks have planned for the release so that @desrosj and I can help track that overall scope and work to resolve blockers anyone has in achieving those goals (noting that our primary focus will be on Full Site Editing).

Historically within the major release cycle this is the time in which a “wish list” post would be published. However, given the nature of the 5.8 release and it’s primary focus on the release of Full Site Editing there won’t be the normal availability to review a lengthy wish list and attend to getting that work to commit within the release. We hope to return to that approach in a future release.

This post is specifically targeted at:

  • Core Component Maintainers to understand what their intended focus is for 5.8
  • Feature plugin authors to understand what they hope to propose for merge in 5.8
  • GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ team (via @youknowriad as 5.8 Editor Tech Lead) to understand what WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. changes are desired to support Full Site Editing (alongside the already-defined “next steps”)

So if you consider yourself a part of one of these three groups, please share what your intended focus is for the 5.8 release so that @desrosj and I can help track the overall 5.8 release scope.

Deadline for response: 14 May 2021 (10 days from now, 11 days from then until Feature Freeze).

Props @desrosj for peer review.

#5-8, #planning, #scope

Francesca Marano 6:29 pm on April 23, 2021
Tags: , planning   

WP5.8 Squad Call for Volunteers

Edit: 4/23/2021 @ 19:10 UTC – changed the references to contributors in the last paragraph to WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ usernames to help to make the connection. – @desrosj

With the schedule finalized and parts of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ phase 2 getting ready to merge, it’s time to put together a squad of focus leads for WordPress 5.8.

You can read more about the different roles in the handbook.

Here are the squad roles available:

The roles of release leadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. and marketing/communications lead will be filled by @matt and @chanthaboune, respectively.

Expectations

Focus leads should be available for at least 5-6 hours a week to perform their tasks, with more time as milestones like Betas, Release Candidates, and General release approach. On the days of those milestones, you might need to dedicate 4-6 hours to WordPress on one day.

There are no limitations to where you come from. We are a global community, open 24/7 so you will schedule scrubs, if needed, according to your availability and potentially find a deputy to cover other timezones.

Because 5.8 is going to be a busy release, the squad won’t have mentorship or ride-along opportunities, like it did in the past, but as Josepha mentioned there is a public channel for the team to coordinate so that others can learn through observation.

This doesn’t mean you need to have all the answers to volunteer. 🙂 There will be a bunch of people available to help and support (the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team representatives, long-time contributors, etc…).

Are you interested?

Please leave your name in the comments with the role you are interested in or reach out to me (@francina), @audrasjb or @chanthaboune if you have any questions before raising your hand.

Thanks!

#5-8, #planning

Francesca Marano 6:58 pm on March 30, 2021
Tags: , planning   

5.8 Pre-planning

Following Josepha’s early thoughts on 5.8 planning, I am kicking off the pre-planning phase of WordPress version 5.8.

Full site editing in 5.8

The plan for WordPress 5.8 is to merge and release the minimum viable product (MVP) of full site editing (FSE). This makes this release particularly complex to handle. It’s a new, exciting change, and it needs the appropriate time to marinate in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. for contributors with enough time to work on it.

Schedule

I would like to propose the following schedule.

MilestoneDateDays from
AlphaFebruary 23, 2021
First FSE go/no go dateApril 13, 2021
Second FSE go/no go dateApril 27, 2021
(If go) FSE MergeTo be determined, but as soon as possible after being greenlighted
Feature freeze/Bug FixesMay 25, 202191 days after Alpha
BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1June 8, 202114 days after Feature Freeze
Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1June 29, 202121 days after Beta 1
General releaseJuly 20, 202121 days after RC1

What’s this “Feature Freeze” step?

As previously discussed (first post, second post), mixing defect work and beta testing is not great for a number of reasons:

  • As a project, we want to respect the beta testers efforts by not introducing new bugs (defect work fixes) in areas they’ve already tested.
  • A mature software project has a beta period during which the focus is on testing changes made during alpha period to ensure its stability.
  • Having a separate deadline for enhancements/features and bugs is beneficial to allow developers to switch focus after the first deadline to address a slew of outstanding bugs.

Enter the “Feature Freeze” step: two weeks where contributors and committers can take care of the thousands of defect tickets in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..

This process should allow time to dedicate appropriate attention to those tickets, without taking attention and resources away from beta testing, which needs to be a priority, especially in this release.

Squad

With such a complex release, Core needs a group of experienced contributors leading the release. For this release, the ride-along/mentorship will pause so that the leads, with previous experience in releases, can focus on the process.

Pre WP5.8 Squad – Skeleton Crew

The period leading to the go/no go step, will need a minimal squad that will focus on:

  • bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. hunting for WP5.7.x minor releases
  • triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. and group tickets into future milestones
  • test Core and FSE tickets and PRs

We are kicking off with a minimal squad of three roles:

Full Squad

Once we’re past the go/no go dates the skeleton crew, together with the project leadership, will determine which skills are needed to successfully complete the cycle.

What about scope?

The focus of the release is full site editing. As suggested in the recent FSE FAQ, the specific scope is to merge the interface that allows for template interaction outside of content, as well as 20+ new blocks, and design tools. This part of the FSE merge will not be offered to users by default, but instead will be geared toward our extender community (theme authors, pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party developers, agencies, builders, etc) so that they can experiment with their users in mind.

As with other releases, it is possible to include more features, provided someone can spearhead them.

I will start a round of check-ins with component maintainers as soon as the timeline is confirmed.

#5-8, #planning

Francesca Marano 10:01 am on December 21, 2020
Tags: , planning   

WordPress 5.7 Planning Roundup

The article has been edited on January 27, 2021, to confirm the schedule and the features included in the release.

After a successful WordPress 5.6 release, this post aims to provide a round-up of planning done so far for WordPress 5.7.

WordPress 5.7 Schedule

This cycle will have a similar timeframe than 5.6:

  • Alpha, 78 days – 5.6 had 84 days
  • BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process., 21 days – same as 5.6
  • RC, 14 days – same as 5.6

Based on the tentative schedule and experiments from the past twelve months, this is the proposed schedule for the first of the four planned releases for 2021:

  • Alpha: 17 November 2020 trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. is open for 5.7 alpha contributions
  • Kickoff: 15 December 2020 first bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub of the new cycle
  • Planning roundup: 21 December 2020 (that’s this post!)
  • Betas: 2 February 2021 (eleven weeks from branching off trunk, seven weeks from kickoff)
  • Release Candidates: 23 February 2021 (three weeks from beta 1)
  • General Release: 9 March 2021 (two weeks from release candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1)

WordPress 5.7 Scope

The main goal for 2021 is Full Site Editing via GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (edited for clarity: this is not THE scope for 5.7 but an ongoing effort 😊).
You can read the status report, join the FSE Outreach program, check the progress on the GitHub issue used to overview to progress, and dive into contributing to it from there!

For WP5.7, these are some of the features that will be likely worked on:

As with every release, all component maintainers and teams are invited to prioritize their bug-fixes and enhancements for 5.7. Look out for the 5.7 report in Trac to see what is getting milestoned and help the project gets those tickets to the end line!”

In addition, all components and teams are invited to continue polishing current interactions and making the UIs more user-friendly.

JB and I are collecting all the proposals from the open call for tickets: we will submit them to the relevant component maintainers so they can evaluate if there are enough resources to address them during this release cycle and update their status. If they are, they will be milestoned for 5.7, so turn on your notifications if you haven’t already.

Please bear in mind, if a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. is still waiting for review, has no patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing., or no owner, it is unlikely (not impossible) that it will land in 5.7. This shouldn’t stop you from continuing to work on it, gather feedback, and ultimately polish it enough to have it in a future release. Shepherding tickets is as vital as submitting patches.

WordPress 5.7 Leads

This area is intentionally incomplete. JB, Josepha, and I are reaching out to people that have expressed interest in being part of 5.7. 

You can read about each role in our handbook. If you are interested, leave a comment on this post, and we will reach out to you too.

  • Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release.: Matt
  • Release Co-ordinator: Ebonie Butler
  • Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. PM: Tonya Mork
  • Core Tech: Sergey Biryukov
  • Editor Tech: Robert Anderson
  • Design: Tim Hengeveld 
  • Docs: JB Audras
  • AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility): Sarah Ricker
  • Test: Monika Rao

Release specific leads

Once we have final confirmation of scope, we will annouce additional focus leads, if needed.

Thanks @chanthaboune and @audrasjb for the help with the post.
Edited for clarity about scope (FSE is not THE scope, it’s an ongoing effort) and tickets in milestone (unlikely to happen vs. impossible to happen)

#5-7, #planning

Josepha 5:24 pm on October 6, 2020
Tags: , planning,   

Update | WordPress 5.6 Release Progress

The planned date for betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 is just about two weeks away on October 20, 2020. The release squad has been keeping me up to date on our collective progress, and I want to update our list of expected features!

Note: This update doesn’t include a number of cross-team initiatives, that could happen around the time of release, but may ship outside of CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. itself. Progress on those will be shared in our quarterly updates on make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//updates.

Planned for Beta 1

  • Automatic updates for major WordPress Core releases (opt-in)
  • New features from the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor upgrades
  • Widgets editing support in Core
  • Twenty Twenty-One theme
  • PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8 support
  • oEmbed updates

Not Planned for Beta 1

  • Twenty Twenty-One block-based/FSE-first – this will be available in the theme repo once completed.
  • Navigation menus block and screen – work will continue on the feature after 5.6. Find out more here.
  • CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. support – work will continue on this feature, but it won’t be ready for Beta 1. Find out more here.
  • Full Site Editing – Full site editing (FSE) will be added to the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party once available.
  • Drop support for PHP 5.6 – On hold until a decision is made on when to stop support for older versions. Find out more here.

Uncertain for Beta 1

There are a few proposals that are still settling, and it’s not clear whether they will resolve in time for beta. I’ve listed them below for better tracking and transparency.

I also enlisted the generous help of some Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors./TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress./Core folks to get a priority list of tickets that could be ready with a little more help. If you’ve got some spare time left in your contribution budget, head on over and see if any of those tickets call to you. 🙂

Thank you to the release squad for their help compiling and reviewing this post. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time thus far!

#5-6, #planning, #update

Francesca Marano 8:33 pm on August 13, 2020
Tags: , planning   

WordPress 5.6 Release Planning

Kudos to the wonderful group of people who contributed to the successful release of WordPress 5.5 yesterday!  We now turn our focus to the final major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. of the year with WordPress 5.6.

Release Squad

As @chanthaboune noted back in March, WordPress 5.6 will feature an all-women release squad with the hope of increasing the number of women who have experience on a release squad and return as contributors to CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and elsewhere.  Then in May when the 5.5 release squad was announced it also noted many of the 5.6 release squad members who would shadow the 5.5 team and learn the release process.  With @chanthaboune on sabbatical until 21 September 2020, I have the pleasure of sharing the 5.6 release leads and the various cohort groups who will be supporting those leads, as well as the release scope and schedule for 5.6.

Release Scope

The following are the remaining goals for the year that are targeted as part of WordPress 5.6.

  • Complete: Convert the widgets-editing areas complete.
  • Complete: Remove support for PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 5.6.x.
  • Ship: Navigation menus blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. and screen in Core.
  • Ship: Automatic updates for major WordPress Core releases (opt-in).
  • Ship: New features from the block editor upgrades.
  • Ship: Widgets-editing and CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. support in Core.
  • Ship: Default theme, including an FSE compatible version.
  • Ship: PHP 8 support.
  • Ship: Public betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. of Full Site Editing.

Release Schedule

The schedule from today, 12 August 2020, until the WordPress 5.6 release can be found on the 5.6 development cycle page.  In summary, some key milestones for the release are:

  • Kickoff: 19 August 2020
  • Beta 1: 20 October 2020 (~9 weeks from kickoff)
  • Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1: 17 November 2020 (4 weeks from Beta 1)
  • General Release: 8 December 2020 (3 weeks from Release Candidate 1)

If you want to dive deeper into 5.6, development is discussed at a weekly meeting in the #core SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel and occurs next at Wednesday at 20:00 UTC. Wish us luck!

This post was compiled with the help of @jeffpaul and reviewed for clarity and accuracy by @cbringmann.  Props to @cbringmann, @angelasjin, @francina, and @desrosj for helping assemble this fantastic release squad and to @chanthaboune for the inspiration to lead the project in this direction!

#5-6, #planning

Josepha 7:55 pm on May 29, 2020
Tags: , , planning   

2020 WordPress Release Squads

Update, June 6 – Changed to include the newest member of the release squad, Mary Baum, on Marketing. -Josepha

Excellent progress has been made on WordPress 5.5 so far, and I’m here to do some updates! One of the big things missing from that post was some clarity around who was joining the release squad to help make sure this is a success. This post has the names we know, and I’m happy to take corrections or suggestions as well. 🙂

  • Release leadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release.: Matt Mullenweg @matt
  • Release coordinator: Jake Spurlock @whyisjake
  • Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. PM: David Baumwald @davidbaumwald
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech: Sergey Biryukov @sergeybiryukov
  • Editor Tech: Ella van Durpe @ellatrix
  • Editor Design: Michael Arestad @michael-arestad
  • Media Tech: Andrew Ozz @azaozz
  • AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Tech: JB Audras @audrasjb
  • Docs coordinator: Justin Ahinon @justinahinon
  • Marketing/Release Comms: TBD @marybaum

Joining simultaneously is the WordPress 5.6 release squad! I’ve tagged all of them here, but have left out role assignments. If they make it part way through the ride along process of WP5.5 and decide it’s not what they signed up for after all, then they can step back and someone else can join. 🙂 The WP5.6 release squad will be announced in a roundup/kickoff post of their own.

@afshanadiya @alliennimmons @amandahdm @amykamala @anchenlr @angelasjin @anyssa @annezazu @aurooba @Azhiyadev @bethannon1 @bethsoderberg @breannmcdede @cguntur @chanthaboune @daydah @elmastudio @eringoblog @estelaris @francina @helen @hellofromTonya @isabel_brison @jainnidhi @katiejrichards @laurora @luminuu @m_butcher @marybaum @mbguery @meaganhanes @meher @mekalekahi @melchoyce @metalandcoffee @michelleames @monikarao @newyorkerlaura @planningwrite @poena @rebasaurus @sarahricker @shital-patel @sncoker @thelmachido @thewebprincess @tray @trisha_cornelius @whitneyyadrich @yvettesonneveld

#5-5 #5-6 #planning

Josepha 1:57 am on March 11, 2020
Tags: , planning   

All-women Release Squad

I recently commented on Twitter that I have a stretch goal of having a release squad that is all women by the end of 2020. With the work I’ve been doing to prepare for my upcoming sabbatical, I’ve been giving a lot of thought about how to do this and what I hope it accomplishes.

What’s the Goal?

The primary goal of any release cycle is to ship a stable and enhanced version of the WordPress CMS, but for the past year or so we’ve also been sharing the procedural work with a team of people. I affectionately refer to them as the release squad.

My hope is that with a release squad comprised entirely of people who identify as women, we’ll be able to increase the number women who have that experience and (hopefully) become returning contributors to CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and elsewhere. This doesn’t mean the release will only contain contributions from women. And if our current squad training process is any indication, it also doesn’t mean that we’re asking a squad to show up and do this without support.

What’s the Plan?

I have a list of about 75 women who raised their hands to participate in this release squad. I think that we can use the current squad training process (ride along, navigate while someone drives, drive while someone navigates) to progressively level up everyone’s skills. Stepping away at any time is an option as long as it’s communicated. 🙂

So far, this is the broad idea for how we will get there:

  1. Prepare and Plan
    1. Make sure the timing works for anyone who already volunteered.
    2. Determine current skills and team involvement.
    3. Reach out proactively to gather additional people where I don’t have quite enough.
    4. Gather groups and group mentors.
  2. Ride Along on Release 5.5
    1. Join triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. sessions, meetings, etc and ask every question.
  3. Navigate Release 5.5.x
    1. Collaborate with the 5.5 release squad to navigate a point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. and ask every question.
  4. Drive Release 5.6
    1. Drive the release while collaborating with some long-time women contributors.

How Can You Help?

The preparation for this will be a big undertaking, but probably just as much training effort as any other release squad I’ve worked with. It’s still a stretch goal, but I figure the best way to get there is to get started. I’m interested to hear from:

  • Anyone who wants to be a mentor or part of the release process.
  • Anyone who has a little extra time to help me with the preparation.
  • Anyone who has questions about how this will work. 🙂

#5-6 #planning

Francesca Marano 7:00 am on January 14, 2020
Tags: , planning   

WordPress 5.4 Planning Roundup

According to the tentative release schedule for 2020-2021, we are due to start 5.4 this week.

These are the milestones, based on the previous cycle:

  • Kickoff: 14 15 January 2020
  • BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1: 11 February 2020 (4 weeks from kickoff)
  • Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1: 03 March 2020 (3 weeks from beta 1)
  • General Release: 31 March 2020 (3 weeks from release candidate 1)

Proposed WordPress 5.4 Scope

The main goal for 2020 is full site editing via GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/.

For 5.4 these are the tasks:

As with every release, all component maintainers and teams are invited to prioritize their bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.-fixes and enhancements for 5.4. Some suggestions that came from a few maintainers included:

  • Build/Test Tools
    • Add support for the newer versions of PHPUnit
  • Comments
    • The component was dormant for a while so during this cycle the new maintainers will do gardening and bug fixing
  • Design
    • The Design Team has a long list of issues they want to work through and they are polishing it for publication.
  • Privacy
    • UIUI User interface Improvements
  • Site Health
  • REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/.
    • Performance improvement
    • Work on endpoints needed by Gutenberg (Menu APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. and Settings API)
  • Users
    • Changes to sites with a large number of users
    • Tweaks to REST API endpoints
  • Media

In addition, all components and teams are invited to continue polishing current interactions and making the UIs more user-friendly.

I also collected all the proposals from the open call for tickets: I will submit them to the relevant component maintainers so they can evaluate if there are enough resources to address them during this release cycle and update the status.

Please bear in mind, if a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. is still waiting for review, has no patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing., or no owner, it is unlikely that it will land in 5.4. This shouldn’t stop you from continuing to work on it, gather feedback and ultimately polish it enough to have it in a future release.

Proposed WordPress 5.4 Leads

This section is still pending some answers. I will fill it in as I get Yeses and Noes from people. 

The roles needed for the release are:

  • Design Coordinator
  • Editor Tech
  • Editor Design
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech
  • Docs Coordinator
  • Docs Writer

@matt will continue his role as release leadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release..

As suggested by @desrosj in a comment, it makes sense to have some roles not change for every release because it takes a while to learn and pass on the information. So David Baumwald and I will stay on for at least a couple more releases, as Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. PM and Release Coordinator respectively. The goal is for us to learn enough so we can then mentor a new group of release and focus leads.

Let’s do this!

#5-4 #planning