Present: Dalai Felinto, Pablo Vazquez and Francesco Siddi
The goal was to review the Blender 2.83 release process, focusing both on the engineering and communication aspects of it.
Recap
Overall the release was a success! Good visual presentation and great online reactions. A few observations about the process.
- All builds up on time on all platforms (deployment process was decoupled from communication)
- All promo media available at release time (except screenshots)
- Having additional copywriting helped to enhance the quality but did not reduce the workload (maybe a timing issue?)
- Not having content/demo files to create the release logs was source of procrastination - we produced most content 3 days before release.
- Last minute bugs/issues appearing due to lack of QA
Enhancement proposals
- Ensure studio team is aware of how much time should be spent supporting the release notes production (artist making content) and allocate such time in the weekly schedule
- Identify backup artist (in studio) for content
- Anything that is committed should come with a non-technical demo file (from artist or module member)
Upcoming release plans
- Homepage redesign for 2.90
- Define and publish milestones for the release process (both regarding engineering and communication)
- bcon1: all relevant commits should provide docs and demos
- bcon2: review main features lineup for communication and artwork production
- bcon3: allocate 1 full time week to prepare the communication campaign for release
- Release notes design
- Features Showcase Video
- Features Review Video
- Press release (and press images)
- Homepage design
- Social media strategy
- Demo files
- Ensure that the last month is dedicated to engineering/quality and not communication
The overall release planning for the 2.90 release will be published later.