In a new blog post, the browser maker explains the beta testing phase will be shortened. Mozilla is becoming more agile, with feature teams increasingly working in short sprints. The firm says they will slowly reduce the release cycle length from 7 weeks down to 6, 5, 4 weeks, while closely watching process and product quality metrics to ensure the user experience doesn't suffer from the shorter release cycle.
Shorter release cycles provide greater flexibility to support product planning and priority changes due to business or market requirements. With four-week cycles, we can be more agile and ship features faster, while applying the same rigor and due diligence needed for a high-quality and stable release. Also, we put new features and implementation of new Web APIs into the hands of developers more quickly. (This is what we’ve been doing recently with CSS spec implementations and updates, for instance.)
In order to maintain quality and minimize risk in a shortened cycle, we must:
Ensure Firefox engineering productivity is not negatively impacted. Speed up the regression feedback loop from rollout to detection to resolution. Be able to control feature rollout based on release readiness. Ensure adequate testing of larger features that span multiple release cycles. Have clear, consistent mitigation and decision processes.