Release 2025.11: Key Dates & Details

Hello everyone!

We're excited to share the details for our upcoming Release 2025.11. This release is packed with improvements and new features designed to enhance your experience. We've been working hard behind the scenes to bring you the best possible updates, and we're thrilled to finally unveil the timeline for its deployment. The Release 2025.11 is officially scheduled to be deployed to production on December 15, 2025. This date marks the culmination of a significant development cycle, and we're eager for you to start leveraging the new capabilities it brings. We understand that release cycles can sometimes be complex, especially when adjustments are made to the original schedule. That's why we want to be transparent about the naming convention and timing of this particular release. Although the release name ends with "11", indicating November, its deployment falls in the twelfth month of the year. This slight discrepancy is due to a strategic consolidation of releases. A release originally planned for October was postponed and subsequently merged with the updates intended for November. To streamline our deployment process and ensure a robust delivery, we've combined the November and December releases into this single, comprehensive Release 2025.11. This approach allows us to deliver a more impactful update while maintaining efficiency. We believe this consolidated approach will provide a more substantial value proposition for our users, bringing together a wider range of enhancements and fixes.

Key Dates to Remember

To ensure a smooth transition and successful deployment, please mark these important dates in your calendar. Each phase is critical for the successful rollout of Release 2025.11. We believe in a structured and methodical approach to software deployment, and these milestones are designed to facilitate just that. They provide clear checkpoints for our teams and ensure that all necessary steps are completed thoroughly.

• December 1 (Monday): ✏️ Release Prep Meeting This is where we kick off the final preparations. The Release prep meeting is a crucial session where all stakeholders gather to discuss the final checklist, review any last-minute changes, and confirm the readiness of the deployment team. It’s a time for alignment and to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the objectives and execution plan for Release 2025.11. We will go over the scope of the release, address potential risks, and finalize the communication plan to keep everyone informed.

• December 3 (Wednesday): 🧊 Freeze the Schema On this day, we will freeze the schema that will be introduced in Release 2025.11. This means that the database structure and data formats will be finalized and will not undergo any further changes for this release. Schema freeze is a critical step to prevent data integrity issues and ensure backward compatibility. It allows our development and testing teams to work with a stable data model, leading to more reliable testing and a smoother deployment. Any changes after this point would require significant justification and re-evaluation.

• December 8 (Monday): 🧪 Begin Testing Final Software Versions This marks the beginning of rigorous testing. We will begin testing the final software versions in our development environment. This phase is all about quality assurance. Our dedicated QA team will be performing comprehensive tests, including functional, performance, and security testing, to identify and resolve any bugs or issues before the release. Thorough testing in a dev environment helps us catch potential problems early, minimizing the risk of encountering unexpected behavior in production. We’ll be simulating various scenarios to ensure everything works as expected under different conditions.

• December 15 (Monday): 🚀 Deploy to Production The big day is here! We will deploy Release 2025.11 to production. This is the final step where all the hard work comes to fruition. Our operations team will execute the deployment plan, carefully rolling out the new version to our live environment. We will be closely monitoring the deployment process and the system's performance post-deployment to ensure a seamless experience for all users. Our teams will be on high alert to address any immediate concerns that might arise.

Customizing Your Release Process

We believe in continuous improvement, and that includes refining our release process itself. The standard release process is well-documented in our private infra-admin repository, providing a clear framework for our deployments. However, we recognize that innovation often requires exploring new methodologies and incorporating unique steps. If there is a specific task or step that you believe would significantly benefit the release process for Release 2025.11, and it's not currently part of our standard procedure, we encourage you to propose it. Please describe your suggested task or step in a comment below. We are open to evaluating new ideas that can enhance efficiency, improve quality, or mitigate risks. Your input is valuable in helping us evolve our practices and ensure we're always adopting the best possible approaches to software delivery.

Critical Issues: Blocking Our Path

Ensuring the stability and reliability of our production environment is paramount. Before we proceed with the deployment of Release 2025.11, all critical issues that could potentially impede the release must be addressed. If you identify any issues that must be resolved before we can confidently deploy to production, please edit this description and list them clearly in the "Blocking Issues" section. This proactive approach helps us maintain the highest standards of quality and prevent any disruptions. We will prioritize the resolution of these blocking issues to ensure a smooth and successful launch. Transparency about potential blockers is key to our collaborative success.

We're looking forward to a successful Release 2025.11!

For more insights into robust software release management, you can explore resources from The DevOps Handbook and Atlassian's Gitflow Workflow.