= Firmware Test Suite Release Cadence =

FWTS will be released every two months when there are no critical issues and functions, released months with two exceptions, April and October, when features are locked for Ubuntu release.

= Goals =

This document is the proposal to a few changes of the fwts release cadence and the versioning scheme. The aim of the proposal is to make fwts more aligned to the Ubuntu release schedule and offer a simpler versioning.

= Benefits =
 * Simple versioning 
  * good for the advertisement and promotion to ODMs
  * indication to the maturity (at least a goal :-) )

 * Time-based Release
  * clear milestones from the perspective of project management.
  * bugs can be assigned to a milestone; clear and open to people outside of fwts team.
  * if the schedule is aligned to Ubuntu, it is possible for the distro QA to test fwts
   * cert. checkbox already uses fwts, we should think of the possibility if the distro checkbox will use fwts too in the future.

= fwts-test verification stage =
  * As we are all not full-time on fwts, it is good to spread the workload over the 6-month development cycle.
  * It is a hope that the team can focus on new feature developing on the first 3 releases, and focus on the QA on the last two, so 
    * On the first 3 releases, there will be the fwts-test report with each, but it is not required to pass all of them for a qualified release.
    * On the last 2 releases, there will be the fwts-test verification stage before the release (as there is now). And it is required to pass all of them for a qualified release.

= Versioning =
 * It is decided to align the version with the Ubuntu release.
 * The versioning scheme will be '''year.month.minor''' since the 13.10 development cycle
    - refer to the table below

= Time-based Release =
 * A time-based release cadence is adopted, all releases are outlined in https://launchpad.net/fwts/+series.

= Release Note =
 * To provide the release note with at least the following 3 sections
  * new features
  * fixed bugs
  * known issues