[Koha-devel] Thoughts about timing and Koha schedules

[Jonathan Druart]

On the other hand, Novembre and May fit quite well with the KohaCon
and the hackfest in Marseille :)

2015-08-21 9:56 GMT+01:00 Brendan Gallagher <info at bywatersolutions.com>:
> 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
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> http://bywatersolutions.com
> info at bywatersolutions.com
>
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