Horace release policy

[cmarooney-stfc]

We currently have no criteria for when we release a new version of Horace. This issue seeks to formulate a policy based on input from the Excitations group.

[mducle]

I don't have an input for criteria when releases should be made but I guess you can either opt for a regular schedule (e.g. every 6 months or every year) or after major milestones are complete (e.g. the next release happens after the data compression is implemented).

But, what I would like to see is a formal "beta-testing" (maybe even "alpha-testing") period of around 2 weeks to a month agreed with the excitations group where we test out the software on DAaaS and local PCs to make sure that everything works from a user's point of view... a prerequisite to this beta-testing period would be the release of a "draft" or "release candidate" distribution.

[davidvoneshen]

I am in complete agreement with Duc that there needs to be some proper beta testing before a release and I would say once every 6 months is a sensible timeline. The number of scientists available for testing is not large so I'd rather we didn't go much more frequent than this. We can also devise a rota for testing to get good coverage every year or so.

I intended to socialise this at the group meeting yesterday and forgot but will request feedback via email. However for the moment we should proceed on this basis.