[epf-dev] EPF Practice Library Versioning

[Jim Ruehlin <jruehlin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Here are the recommendations and issues
identified in the 4/7/08 meeting on versioning the content in the EPF Practice
Library. I suggest that these be reviewed and discussed on in our EPF Content
meeting this Wednesday, and that we have another meeting about versioning
to resolve outstanding issues.

Attendees:
Jim Ruehlin
David Hadley

Recommendations:
Processes that are published out of
the practice library should have the same version as the practice library.
Also, the version of the practice library should match the major release
version number of EPF Composer. For example, OpenUP 1.5 would be the published
OpenUP process from EPF Practice Library version 1.5. The practice library
would be compatible with EPF Composer version 1.5.
Justification: This should make it easier
for contributors to understand compatibilities between content and tooling.

There should be only one practice library
that holds all EPF content. This means that all processes published from
the practice library would be  baselined with the same version number.
For example, Scrum 1.5 and OpenUP 1.5 would both be published from EPF
Practice Library version 1.5.
Justification: This keeps version numbers
consistent and easy to maintain. 
Drawbacks:  It would be possible
for a published process to have its version number bumped without any content
changes. For instance, assume nothing changes in any Scrum related practice
between EPF Practice Library 1.5 and 2.0. The published Scrum 2.0 would
be the same as Scrum 1.5, although 2.0 would be compatible with the most
recent tooling. 

All method elements (plug-ins, guidelines,
tasks, etc) are bumped to the new version number for a library. This version
information is recorded in the Version field of the method element.

Open Issues
How should translated libraries be versioned?
We left this open as there was no one on the call who had participated
in translation activities.

When should the version of the library
be incremented? After the committers switch to the pre-release version
of the tool? Or when the library is ready for production?

Jim Ruehlin
RUP Content Developer
EPF Committer
Rational Software
IBM Software Group

email jruehlin@xxxxxxxxxx
phone 760.505.3232
fax 949.369.0720