Dependent Releases for Derivative Products
The original intention of more frequent delivery was always to continue using the January + July Releases as the dependent INT Editions for all derivatives. This was to ease users through the transition, by allowing them to continue using the Jan + July releases indefinitely, rather than moving to individual monthly releases.
However, this causes a potential conflict with the July Derivative cycle, as if we don't start the (many) feeder derivatives for the September GPS product until 1st August (instead of starting on 1st July as we did last year because we had the luxury of cutting off the July 21 editing cycle in May 21), not only do we reduce the amount of time that everyone has to migrate the refsets + get external reviews completed, but more importantly we clash with the European holiday season in terms of getting reviews signed off by the key external stakeholders , who are often away for the entirety of August.
We are in the process of discussing this with the relevant stakeholders, to see if they will be available in August 2022, but if not we are wondering if it would be acceptable for the 2022 Derivatives (including GPS) to be based on the May or June 22 release (instead of July 22)? Whilst this may initially seem inconvenient, it would have the benefit of increasing the quality of these derivative products by allowing thorough internal + external reviews before publishing.
Comments
Contacts with the Swedish NRC confirmed my opinion.
This sounds like a problem with the process for how derivatives are maintained...
The introduction of monthly releases should mean that maintenance (of derivatives and extensions) can happen more regularly in smaller increments. The derivative doesn't need to be published monthly, but the work can be spread out.
To make the derived products useful in countries that makes national editions with translations or other larger additions, the derived products need to be based on the same international release as one of the national releases. I assume that most NRC:s are already planning to do a national release of the July (and not the June or May) international release and it would probably, for different reasons, be difficult for them to re-plan that. I am therefore afraid that this issue is raised a little too late to be able to change anything.
Would another alternative be to delay the derived products for a month?
(In Sweden, and probably also the other Nordic countries, the vacation period is July and not August.)