Whidbey RTM Escrow

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As we begin to close down on Ask Mode for the Platform and Design Time teams we enter the final stage of the release, Whidbey RTM Escrow.   

DevDiv Whidbey RTM Escrow – the phase before the completion of the RTM milestone where the product goes through a period of bake time. No additional work is planned for the Whidbey RTM ENU product during this period of time, “we are done”. All QA teams have completed their final test passes and have signed off on the product, including all Whidbey release criteria. The only work left to complete will be media verification. 

Once the Platform teams meet the set of entry criteria required for entering escrow we will complete our final long-haul stress runs and turn our focus to locking down the Design Time teams. When the Design Time teams meet the set of entry criteria for escrow we will turn our focus towards meeting our escrow exit criteria. We will build what we expect to be our final build and QA will begin media verification. 

Escrow Entry Criteria

  • 0 recall class bugs left to be fixed for Whidbey RTM
  • QA teams have completed their Final Test Pass and signed off on the release
  • Final release criteria met/signed off

Escrow Exit Criteria

  • Media verification completed
  • No Bugs marked as Escrow Reset under investigation

What will people be doing during escrow?  

  • Long-Haul Stress – we will continue to run Long Haul Stress to confirm that we have not encountered any new recall class bugs
  • App Building – we will continue to do App Building to confirm that we have not encountered any new recall class bugs
  • Media Verification – during the first week of Design Time escrow we will complete media sign-off
  • DevDiv shiproom will continue to meet daily while we are in real-time bug mode (24-hour triage), where all new escrow bugs filed must be triaged within 24 hours.
  • Investigating issues and regression testing any changes taken during escrow

Where is the triage bar? What would reset escrow?   During escrow only issues deemed “recall class” by shiproom meet the bar and would reset escrow. This would have to be a serious enough issue requiring us to recall the media, such as an MSRC or GDR class security issue.

Would we restart the escrow clock?    Yes, depending on where the fix is we will reset escrow based on QA’s expected Whidbey Response Time for verifying and regression testing a given fix. The expectation is that if we take a serious enough escrow resetting fix that we would need a maximum of 2 weeks from the completion of the fixed build to ship RTM.

We are almost there!!!

-Mike