"What the heck is going on with the projects?"
This is a question we are hearing more and more frequently. Truth be known, this is quite the "G" rated version of the question we sometimes get! Why is it important to know that? Well, for us its important to note just exactly how much the status (or lack of status) on some these projects are impacting you. And we want you to know that you're being heard.
I am responsible for the Projects Program, its part of my responsibility . Starting today you're going to be hearing about whats going on in that program more regularly. That does not mean that every inquiry will get a satisfactory answer every week... but it does mean that progress will be being made and that you will be hearing about that progress as it occurs, or some explanation for why it has not.
So... what's going on with the Projects Program? Lots.
In October, we instituted among the teams a Module Release Process. This process involves the use of a tool to track progress of a module package through various forms of testing, with differrent criteria etc. Its been extremely successful in helping to drive some consistency in the packages that are being created, their reliability, etc. Since October there have been 22 package submissions to the tracker, with 11 failures... thats a 50% pass rate which is way too low... but on a positive note is the most critical step in working toward an improvement in that rate. These 5 modules have been released after successfully navigating the process:
~ User Defined Table
~ Announcements
~ Survey
~ Media
~ FCKeditor Provider
Additionally, there are a few more coming through now...
~ Survey (next version)
~ Documents
~ Reports
~ XML
~ IFrame
These should be reaching release status within the next week or so and, honestly, a couple of them should have been released before now but have fallen victim to busy Christmas schedules. That will get rectified shortly.
There are 28 actual discreet "projects"... plus there are a few extra areas of core focus like Active Directory, ClientAPI, Localization & WebControls. It may take a few posts to work through status and updates on all these projects, but it is coming. And so are a few of these projects that you have been waiting for...