Proposed dates for JDK 8

[Mathias Axelsson]

Hi,

Since I didn't get any pushback on the below dates I will move forward with those dates as the plan of record for JDK 8.

Kind regards,
Mathias

On Apr 4, 2012, at 6:40 PM, Mathias Axelsson wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> First of all I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Mathias Axelsson and
> I'm the lead release manager for the Oracle JDK. I'm based in Stockholm, 
> Sweden. 
> 
> Although my role at Oracle is to ensure that we deliver Oracle JDK 8 I think 
> it's clear that our developers are primarily focused on delivering code into 
> OpenJDK, and so I'd like to propose the following high-level dates for the 
> JDK 8 Release Project for review and feedback.
> 
> In 2010 Mark posted details about plan B for JDK 7 and JDK 8 [1]. The below 
> dates have been adjusted from the original post based on the details I have 
> for JDK 8 at this stage to come up with an achievable plan.
> 
> First of all I'd like to propose some dates for the implementation milestones 
> for JDK 8 so that there are some high-level buckets that can be targeted for 
> delivering features and enhancements.
> 
> Implementation milestones:
> - M1: August 2011 - April 24, 2012
> - M2: Ends June 14, 2012
> - M3: Ends July 30, 2012
> - M4: Ends September 11, 2012
> - M5: Ends November 26, 2012
> - M6: Ends January 30, 2013
> 
> Based on the above I would recommend a feature complete (FC) date of
> end of  January 2013 when all features and new tests development would 
> need to be completed.
> 
> Since there are a lot of features going into JDK 8 I think we need at least 
> as much time to stabilize JDK 8 as was needed in JDK 7. That leads us to a 
> target release date in September 2013.
> 
> In order to get from FC to the release date based on the above dates I think 
> we'll need to raise the bar in steps during the bug fixing phase of the 
> release so that we stay focused on the critical issues. I would like to 
> recommend the following approach.
> 
> - General bug fixing from early February till early April 2013
> - In early April 2013 the bar is raised to only allow P1-P3 bugs to be fixed
> - By mid-June 2013 the bar is raised even higher and only showstopper bug 
>  fixes are considered
> 
> The component JSRs will most likely need time to bake beyond the FC date, 
> so I think JSR work should be exempt from the above rules until early 
> May 2013. After that time they'll follow the same approach as above.
> 
> In order to reduce the likelihood of critical bugs being discovered very 
> late in the game, as had happened in the final days of JDK 7 stabilization 
> with bugs that were discovered [2] by Apache Lucene developers, I would 
> like to recommend that we set a date for when testing and bug reporting 
> should have been completed in order to have enough time to fix them before 
> shipping JDK 8. Based on the proposed dates I would recommend that we set 
> that date to early April 2013. Bugs reported after this date should be 
> looked at (and hopefully fixed) as well but if the reports comes in too late 
> it might not be possible to fix them within the JDK 8 time frame. Therefore 
> I propose a proactive approach to test early and report the issues so we can 
> prioritize the critical bugs as early as possible.
> 
> I would like the timeline for JDK 8 to be clear for everyone working on the 
> project so please respond with any feedback by April 17 so it can be taken 
> into account.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Mathias Axelsson
> 
> [1] http://mreinhold.org/blog/plan-b
> [2] https://blogs.oracle.com/java/entry/java_7_questions_answers
>