[eclipse-dev] Using milestones in the bug database

[John_Wiegand@xxxxxxx]

Particular problem reports being worked on for the 2.0 release can be tracked through the Eclipse Bug 
Database (http://dev.eclipse.org/bugs/); the "Target Milestone" field relects when a work item is targeted 
to become available in the main development stream. Anyone interested in particular defects should 
monitor them for status changes.

Currently there are three milestones that we are using, correspond to the development milestones in the 
Eclipse Project 2.0 Plan (http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/eclipse_project_plan_2_0.html): 

        2.0 M1 - milestone 1 - December 21, 2001 - stable build reflecting good progress
        2.0 M2 - milestone 2 - January 25, 2002 - stable build reflecting significant progress
        2.0 M3 - milestone 3 - February 15, 2002 - stable build - feature complete - initial development freeze

 Anyone may do a query to determine which defects have been or will be fixed at a specific milestone.  
Because of this, it is important that this field is set accurately.  Normally, the component lead will set the 
milestone when work is planned or assigned.  In some cases, the milestone will be set when the work 
is completed.

It is inappropriate to unilaterally change the value of the field to a later milestone or no milestone at all. If 
the situation arises where we are likely to miss, or have missed, the milestone for a defect, the developer 
must bring this to the Subproject lead. The Subproject lead will then work in conjunction with the PMC to 
resolve this inconsistency.