Release Management/Release Notes: Difference between revisions

== Summarized process ==

# During the Nightly cycle, Release management monitors the relnote-firefox flag on Bugzilla and adds release notes for Nightly in Nucleus.

# Engineering/Product may add notes directly to the shared document.

# Release management continues to monitor the relnote-firefox flag on Bugzilla and add release notes in Nucleus and the shared document.

# Release management/Engineering/Product performs an editorial review in the shared document.

# Release management makes the release notes public in Nucleus after pushing the release live.

** Check the patches that landed. If the changes are behind a pref then check if the pref value is IS_NIGHTLY_BUILD, or IS_EARLY_BETA_OR_EARLIER

** Add the release note in Nucleus.

*** If the note is Nightly only use a html tag to indicate it’s nightly only.

** Comment on the bug to inform that the note was added to nightly.

** Copy the release notes from nightly that are riding the train.

* Copy release notes to the release notes draft document.

* Share a link to the Beta Release Notes on [https://mozilla.slack.com/archives/C9L102H6X #release-notes] internal Slack channel.

* Share a link to the draft release notes doc on [https://mozilla.slack.com/archives/C9L102H6X #release-notes] internal Slack channel. Include a link to the draft document and the submission deadline.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

| Hi! We're at the start of the FxNNN Beta cycle, which means it is time for a new release notes cycle!

The DEADLINE for submissions is ''Month Day, Year''.

This will give us time to make necessary edits and/or changes before publishing on ''Month Day, Year''.

** Check if the wording is appropriate.

** Add the release note in Nucleus and the draft document.

* If an uplift in beta is to enable a feature to ride the train, ensure to remove the nightly only note from the current nightly release notes where applicable.

===Day before the release notes deadline===

===Day after the release notes deadline===

* Review the draft release notes document.

* Create a new release in Nucleus for Desktop, Android, and iOS.

** Order the release notes via the ''sort num'', the order will be from highest number to lowest. Otherwise, the default order is based when the release notes were added to the release.

* Set the relnote tracking flag to XXX+

* Share a link to the staged Release Notes on [https://mozilla.slack.com/archives/C9L102H6X #release-notes] internal Slack channel.

| NNN.0 Release notes are now available on the staging server.

If there are any wording suggestions or last minute additions, please reply to this thread.

|}

== Dot-Release Notes ==

===During dot release preperation===

* Evaluate if an uplift requires a release note

* Put a link to the reference release notes for the major version e.g.: Reference link to [https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/102.0/releasenotes/ 102.0 release notes].

For some defects reported post-release go-live, it should be evaluated if it is useful to add a known issue to the release notes.  

* Update the release notes to add a Known Issue.

** If there are multiple releases on the same version include the Known Issue in the release and all dot release versions.

* After a fix for the issue has been released, edit the Known Issue:

Readers need to know what features are introduced/changed, the technical meaning of the feature, and the impact the feature will have on users.  

** Avoid using abbreviations. For example, "pref" should be "preference".

* For new or changed features focus on how it affects the user’s experience of Firefox, not what the software itself is doing.  

* For bugs focus on how the user was impacted. Start the release note with a verb in the past tense, for example Fixed, Added, Removed.  

* For known issues focus on how the user is impacted. If a workaround exists ensure to use clear instructions on how to leverage the workaround.

* Use full stops at the end of every note. The MDN [https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/MDN/Writing_guidelines/Writing_style_guide#writing_style Writing Style] is a good reference to follow for capitalization, contractions, numbers and numerals, pluralization, apostrophes and quotation marks, commas, hyphens, and spelling.

Release notes are written and managed in [https://nucleus.mozilla.org Nucleus].

* ESR: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/notes/

In Nucleus you should associate each note with a category. The notes will be grouped by category in the templated page on mozilla.org.