TYPO3 Phoenix
Robert and me have given an insight in the way we started to develop the new version of TYPO3 in his news article. The scrum method we use now has user stories as a base for creating tasks that need to be done in order to full fill the user story. The first sprint will end in week 20.
We have a team that is dedicated to Phoenix. Robert and Karsten are working full time paid by the Association for this. Jens Hoffmann will be involved for the Phoenix Interface, also paid by the Association from the month of June onwards. The other team members dedicate there spare time or work time to the development of Phoenix, generally 2-3 days per sprint.
We use the name Phoenix for the new CMS version now. We can’t be sure at this moment that we can use the name ‘version 5’ as we are rapidly approaching that number with the half-yearly release cycles we now have. TYPO3 version 4.4 is already scheduled for release in June of this year.
TYPO3 version 4.4
The new TYPO3 version will include the Introduction Package that is aimed at having a website up and running in a few minutes. The website will include best practices and will end the dreaded “No Template Found!“ on installing TYPO3. Benni Mack is release manager for this version and is dedicated to getting as much of the usability features in from the User eXperience Week 2009. Keep an eye on the news articles concerning the beta releases of TYPO3 version 4.4. The current beta does not include the Introduction Package, but it is expected beta3 will include it. We are also looking for a name space we can use for our future TYPO3 releases. There will be a page available for that soon so you can give your input on that.
Bug days
François Suter has taken the initiative to reanimate the bug days. At 5 locations about 30 developers took part in the Bug Day on the 30th of April. A lot of action and a lot of results, thanks to all those who made this day a success. Don't forget to already write down the next date in your agenda: May 28, 2010. At that time, TYPO3 version 4.4 will be in the final development phase and the topic will be to iron out the last bugs and make 4.4 all shiny.
The bug days are planned for every end of the month.
TYPO3 Product Manager
In the Combined Steering Committee and Board (CoSCoB) meetings we already concluded that there was a need for a global view of what is going on in the community and specifically in the teams. We have a great community in which a lot is going on on several fronts. Sometimes things happen without being connected to each other or things happen without being properly guided. I had already done several things along that lines previously and as I was looking for an new direction in my life I gladly accepted to work as TYPO3 Product Manager. I have daily meetings with the Phoenix team, weekly meetings with Benni Mack and Oliver Hader about the 4.x branch, weekly meetings with Francois Suter about documentation and I am a member of the Marketing Team. There is a considerable budget for marketing now and we are increasing TYPO3 marketing efforts on several fronts. Besides the ‘official‘ channels there are several separate initiatives. For instance Joey Hasenau has started the clean back-end project to achieve real browser compatibility of the TYPO3 backend. One of the most exciting projects going on this moment is the Introduction Package for TYPO3 version 4.4. At the User eXperience Week last year the foundation was laid down to improve the usability of TYPO3 from a user perspective. Having an out-of-the-box website is something that will increase the adoption of TYPO3. The project has it’s own page on Forge as well.
Board and Steering Committee
In the CoSCoB meetings we also discussed the need for democracy and we have come up with the concept of a Business Control Committee that basically controls how the budget is spent in the Association. On the 10th and 11th of May this concept was finalised and voted upon in Munich. An English translation of the TYPO3 Association bylaws will be available soon on the TYPO3 Association website.