[Koha-devel] Thoughts about timing and Koha schedules

[Brendan Gallagher]

Hi All -

ByWater is on its 7th year, so we have a solid set of data for analyzing,
and recently I've noticed a few things.  Let me try and paint the picture.

Major Koha releases are every six months and usually the 22nd day of the
month, with the target being November and May.  (Please correct me if I am
wrong)

Library funding cycles in the US run either fiscal year (July to June),
Calendar year  (January to December), or some odd fiscal year close to the
July~June year.  Ok that being said from the time management situation with
ByWater that introduces a few complexities.

(Let me describe the workflow and maybe you'll see what I am talking about)
 Most of the time a library will sign a migration contract with us that
dictates we must have them "go-live" before a certain fiscal date OR the
library isn't really able to "sign" a contract for services until a certain
fiscally motivated date (which places us into a similar roll-out).  That
being said we find that May and November (plus and minus a month) are our
busiest times of the year.  I've got 3 people on the road for
education/training, 3 people heavily in the fields of migrations scripts,
and 3 developers that are heavily in the field of meeting development
expectations for lots and lots of go-lives (*note - plus additional staff
to support an influx in tickets or other support needs during a go-live
period).

So if we slide the releases to say February and August - I would be able to
dedicate more man power (9+ people from the above paragraph) around the
heavy testing/ debugging / bug writing/squashing periods for a release.  I
know I know - there isn't really a time that Koha doesn't need more
testing, but I've noticed that the volunteer effort is usually much
greater/demanding the closer we are to major release date.

I am wondering if others are finding the same with their work schedules
(other support providers, academic institutions, public institutions, and
my favorite volunteers).  Are there certain times of the years where your
day job is predictably busy that you aren't able to dedicate the resources
that you want towards the greatest project in the world Koha.

With the data set that we're sitting on here, we are constantly seeking
ways that we can contribute more.  Just a thought and was curious if others
analyzed a similar aspect with their environment and perhaps maybe we
should bring such a discussion into the open or a general IRC meeting.
Especially any of us that are support providers we should be always be
thinking about how we can do more for Koha.

Thanks and Cheers (another sleepless night thinking about my favorite
subject - Koha),
Brendan

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brendan A. Gallagher
ByWater Solutions
CEO

Support and Consulting for Open Source Software
Installation, Data Migration, Training, Customization, Hosting
and Complete Support Packages
Headquarters: Portland, OR - Office: Redding, CT
Phone # (888) 900-8944
http://bywatersolutions.com
info at bywatersolutions.com
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