Tasks for v1.7 release cycle

[cahillsf]

Please see the corresponding section in release-tasks.md for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Notes:

• Weeks are only specified to give some orientation.
• The following is based on the v1.7 release cycle. Modify according to the tracked release cycle.

Week 1:

• [x] [Release Lead] Finalize release schedule and team
  • PR: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/pull/9831
• [x] [Release Lead] Add/remove release team members
  • org PR: https://github.com/kubernetes/org/pull/4619
  • community PR: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/pull/7645
  • OWNERS PR: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/pull/9855
• [x] [Release Lead] Prepare main branch for development of the new release
  • PR: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/pull/9799
• [x] [Communications Manager] Add docs to collect release notes for users and migration notes for provider implementers
  • https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/pull/9868
• [x] [Communications Manager] Update supported versions
  • https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/pull/9867

Week 1 to 4:

• [x] [Release Lead] [Track] Remove previously deprecated code
  • Issue: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/issues/9904

Week 6:

• [x] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.5.5 & v1.6.1 releases (Jan 16 2024)

Week 9:

• [x] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.5.6 & v1.6.2 releases(Feb 21 2024 - delayed a week due to https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/issues/10051)

Week 11 to 12:

• [x] [Release Lead] [Track] Bump dependencies

Week 13:

• [x] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.0-beta.0 release
• [x] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.5.7 & v1.6.3 releases
• [x] [Release Lead] Create a new GitHub milestone for the next release
• [x] [Communications Manager] Communicate beta to providers

Week 14:

• KubeCon idle week

Week 15:

• [ ] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.0-beta.1 release
• [ ] [Release Lead] Set a tentative release date for the next minor release
• [ ] [Release Lead] Assemble next release team
• [ ] [Release Lead] Select release lead for the next release cycle

Week 16:

• [ ] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.0-rc.0 release
• [ ] [Release Lead] Update milestone applier and GitHub Actions
• [ ] [CI Manager] Setup jobs and dashboards for the release-1.6 release branch
• [ ] [Communications Manager] Ensure the book for the new release is available

Week 17:

• [ ] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.0-rc.1 release

Week 18:

• [ ] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.7.0 release
• [ ] [Release Lead] Cut the v1.5.8 & v1.6.4 releases
• [ ] [Release Lead] Organize release retrospective
• [ ] [Communications Manager] Change production branch in Netlify to the new release branch
• [ ] [Communications Manager] Update clusterctl links in the quickstart

Continuously:

• [Release lead] Maintain the GitHub release milestone
• [Release lead] Bump the Go version
• [Communications Manager] Communicate key dates to the community
• [Communications Manager] Improve release process documentation
• [Communications Manager] Maintain and improve user facing documentation about releases, release policy and release calendar
• [CI Manager] Monitor CI signal
• [CI Manager] Reduce the amount of flaky tests
• [CI Manager] Bug triage
• [CI Manager] Maintain and improve release automation, tooling & related developer docs

If and when necessary:

• [ ] [Release Lead] [Track] Bump the Cluster API apiVersion
• [x] [Release Lead] [Track] Bump the Kubernetes version
  • Issue: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api/issues/9578
• [ ] [Release Lead] Track Release and Improvement tasks
  • Project board for improvement tasks: https://github.com/orgs/kubernetes-sigs/projects/59

[cahillsf]

/triage accepted /assign cahillsf

[cahillsf]

/cc @sbueringer @fabriziopandini @vincepri @killianmuldoon @CecileRobertMichon @enxebre for visibility

[fabriziopandini]

/area release

[fabriziopandini]

/kind feature /priority important-soon

[cahillsf]

that's a wrap for v1.7 -- should be all good here, feel free to reopen and followup with me if anything was overlooked

/close

[k8s-ci-robot]

@cahillsf: Closing this issue.

In response to this:

that's a wrap for v1.7 -- should be all good here, feel free to reopen and followup with me if anything was overlooked

/close

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