This document outlines the standards and best practices for release management across all Bayat projects.
All Bayat projects must follow semantic versioning guidelines in the format of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
:
- MAJOR: Incompatible API changes
- MINOR: Backwards-compatible functionality additions
- PATCH: Backwards-compatible bug fixes
Examples:
1.0.0
- Initial stable release1.1.0
- New features added1.1.1
- Bug fixes
For pre-release versions, use the following identifiers:
alpha
- Early testing, unstablebeta
- Feature complete, potentially unstablerc
- Release candidate, feature frozen
Examples:
1.0.0-alpha.1
1.0.0-beta.2
1.0.0-rc.1
- Development phase (feature branches)
- Integration phase (merge to develop)
- Stabilization phase (create release branch)
- Release candidate testing
- Production release (merge to main/master)
- Post-release maintenance
- Major releases: Every 6-12 months
- Minor releases: Every 1-3 months
- Patch releases: As needed, typically within 1-2 weeks of bug discovery
- All tests passing on CI/CD pipeline
- Code review completed
- Documentation updated
- Release notes prepared
- Security scan completed
- Performance tests passed
- Accessibility compliance verified
- Localization completed
Release notes must include:
- Version number and release date
- Summary of changes
- New features (for minor and major releases)
- Bug fixes with reference to issue IDs
- Breaking changes with migration guide
- Dependencies updated
- Deprecation notices
- Contributors acknowledgment
- Source code tags in repository
- Compiled binaries/packages
- Docker images
- Documentation updates
- Deployment manifests
- Development
- Testing/QA
- Staging
- Production
- Canary deployments for high-risk changes
- Blue/green deployments for zero-downtime updates
- Progressive rollout for user-facing changes
- Critical security vulnerabilities
- Data corruption issues
- Significant performance degradation
- Feature regression affecting core functionality
- Identify the need for rollback
- Communicate to stakeholders
- Deploy previous stable version
- Verify system stability
- Analyze failure and document lessons learned
- LTS releases are designated for production use
- Supported for a minimum of 12 months
- Security updates provided for entire support period
- No new features added to LTS releases
- End-of-life notification 3 months before support ends
- Archive repository with clear EOL notice
- Provide migration path to supported versions
- Advance notice for major releases (1 month)
- Release announcement emails
- Change log published on relevant platforms
- Deprecation notices (3 months before removal)
- Maintain a public release calendar
- Communicate schedule changes at least 2 weeks in advance