Thread:Talk:Release Management RFP/NicheWork and Hallo Welt!/Excellence in the release process

During the IRC Q&A, User:RobLa said he would "actually prefers focus on excellence in the release process itself as the main goal here, rather than shiny new features."

I agree this is an important focus and since I've been managing it for the past couple of releases, I'll point out some areas that need improvement:
 * RC testing
 * While there was some release testing, there wasn't a formal effort to QA the release.


 * Breaking changes
 * skinning in 1.17, resource loader
 * no one is charged with making sure extensions work.


 * formal release timelines
 * Some work on this has been done, but we need a formal pre-release process. The release timeline needs to be formalized.