Open Design Engine

When the Mach 30 Board decided to move forward with implementing ODE in Redmine at its 2011 Planning Meetings, I laid out a release schedule based on a series of design discussions inside and outside of Mach 30. This schedule aimed to quickly release v0.1 based on entirely existing code from the Redmine community, so I assumed I could get it up and running in just a few days. I failed to account for the time it would take to get up to speed with the tools I am using (take a look at the Installation Instructions to see the challenges faced in standing up Redmine with svn, etc), and so naturally we are a little behind in the schedule. The original due date for v0.1 was May 1, 2011. As I write this, I am 11 days late and counting. To add insult to injury, my workload outside Mach 30 has shot up dramatically in recent weeks, severely limiting my available hours to work on ODE. Finally, v0.2, due at the end of June was even more ambitious, including a number of custom plugins for Redmine and a UI facelift. Given the progress on v0.1, there is no way v0.2 will be released on time.

Clearly it is time for a new plan. First, I will be moving the due date for v0.1 out to May 31, 2011. Given the extra time, I also want to move Issue #31, which is one of the more pressing security issues, up from v0.2 to v0.1 (we'll have to see if this was a good idea or not as time progresses). I am also going to limit the scope of v0.2 to just the minimum number of new features (for example, I think it must include Feature #11 and Feature #12, but most of the others can probably wait). Finally, I will setup quarterly releases through the end of the year, each of which will focus on only one or two core features. Stay tuned for more updates.

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