Roadmap & Branching Strategy
PL2026 Timeline
The following Gantt chart illustrates the complete PL2026 development timeline, including management activities, development phases, ALMA testing cycles, and delivery milestones.
gantt
title PL2026 Timeline
dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
tickInterval 1month
excludes weekends
section Management
Stakeholder Planning & Prioritization :active, des1, 2025-10-01, 2025-12-31
Team F2F Meeting, Charlottesville, VA :active, 2025-10-13, 5d
Inform ALMA AQUA/Archive of New Products :active, milestone, 2026-05-01, 1d
section Development
New Features, Bugfixes, Refactoring, Testing, Documentation :active, 2026-01-01, 2026-07-01
VLASS Feature Dev Complete :active, milestone, 2026-02-01, 1d
VLASS Branch release/2026.1.0 :active, milestone, 2026-02-15, 1d
CASA Branch PL2026 :active, milestone, 2026-02-15, 1d
ALMA/VLA Feature Dev Complete :active, milestone, 2026-07-01, 1d
ALMA/VLA Branch release/2026.2.0 :active, milestone, 2026-07-01, 1d
Optimization & Bugfixes :active, 2026-07-01, 2026-07-31
section ALMA Testing
Ref. Benchmark (late-PL2025) :active, 2025-10-01, 2025-11-15
Ref. Benchmark (early-PL2026) :active, 2026-02-15, 2026-03-31
Validation Benchmark (PL2026) :active, 2026-06-15, 2026-07-31
TRR1 :test2, 2026-05-15, 2026-05-29
TRR2 :test3, 2026-07-10, 2026-07-24
Accept. Rev. :test4, 2026-08-14, 2026-09-02
JAO-ARC Validation Test :test5, 2026-09-05, 2026-09-14
section Delivery
ALMA Cycle-12 and VLA/SRDP Pipeline (2025.1.0.35, CASA 6.6.6-17-py3.10) :done, crit, milestone, 2025-10-01, 1d
VLASS Pipeline (2026.1.0, CASA 6.7.1-py3.10+gpu) :active, crit, milestone, 2026-03-15, 1d
ALMA E2E13 Pre-release :active, crit, milestone, 2026-07-10, 1d
ALMA Cycle-13 and VLA/SRDP Pipeline (2026.2.0, CASA 6.7.x-py3.12) :active, crit, milestone, 2026-08-01, 1d
Key Milestones
Delivery Schedule
- October 2025:
ALMA Cycle-12 and VLA/SRDP Pipeline
Version: 2025.1.0.35
CASA: 6.6.6-17-py3.10
Status: Completed
- March 2026:
VLASS Pipeline
Version: 2026.1.0
CASA: 6.7.1-py3.10+gpu
Status: In Development
- July 2026:
ALMA E2E13 Pre-release
Version: 2026.2.0 (pre-release)
Status: Planned
- August 2026:
ALMA Cycle-13 and VLA/SRDP Pipeline
Version: 2026.2.0
CASA: 6.7.x-py3.12
Status: Planned
PL2025/2026 Branching Strategy
The branching diagram below illustrates the development workflow across PL2025 and PL2026 cycles, showing the relationship between the main development branch and release branches.
Branch Overview
Main Branch: Continuous development with new features and improvements
release/2025.1.0: Stable release for ALMA Cycle-12 (CASA 6.6.6-py3.10)
release/2026.1.0: VLASS-focused release (CASA 6.7.1-py3.10+hpg)
release/2026.2.0: ALMA Cycle-13 and VLA release (CASA 6.7.x-py3.12)
---
title: PL2025/2026 Branching
config:
logLevel: 'debug'
theme: 'base'
gitGraph:
showBranches: true
showCommitLabel: true
mainBranchOrder: 1
---
gitGraph
%% === Initial 2025 Development on Main ===
commit id:"feature1"
commit id:"feature2"
commit id:"feature3"
commit id:"bugfix1" tag:"2025.0.2.14" tag:"2025.1.0.0" tag:"2025.1.1.0"
%% --- Branch for 2025.1.0 Release ---
branch "release/2025.1.0 (casa-6.6.6-py3.10)" order: 0
checkout "release/2025.1.0 (casa-6.6.6-py3.10)"
commit id:"bugfix2"
commit id:"bugfix3" tag:"2025.1.0.35" type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout main
%% === Continued Development on Main ===
commit id:"refactor1"
commit id:"refactor2"
branch "feature4" order: 2
checkout "feature4"
commit id:"feature4-pt1"
commit id:"feature4-pt2"
checkout main
cherry-pick id:"bugfix2" tag:"2025.1.1.x"
cherry-pick id:"bugfix3" tag:"2025.1.1.27"
merge "feature4" id:"merge:feature4"
commit id:"feature4"
commit id:"bugfix4" tag:"2025.1.1.10"
commit id:"feature5"
commit id:"feature6" tag:"2026.0.0.0"
%% === VLASS 2026 Development ===
commit id:"feature7"
commit id:"bugfix5" tag:"2026.0.1.0"
commit id:"bugfix6"
commit id:"feature8" tag:"2026.0.1.14" tag:"2026.1.0.0" tag:"2026.1.1.0"
%% --- Branch for 2026.1.0 (VLASS) Release ---
branch "release/2026.1.0 (casa-6.7.1-py3.10+hpg)" order: 3
checkout "release/2026.1.0 (casa-6.7.1-py3.10+hpg)"
commit id:"bugfix7"
commit id:"bugfix8" tag:"2026.1.0.2"
commit id:"hotfix1"
commit id:"hotfix2" tag:"2026.1.0.3" type: HIGHLIGHT
checkout main
%% === ALMA/VLA 2026 Development ===
commit id:"feature9" tag:"2026.1.1.1"
cherry-pick id:"bugfix7" tag:"2026.1.1.2"
commit id:"feature10"
commit id:"feature11" tag:"2026.1.2.0"
commit id:"feature12"
commit id:"bugfix9" tag:"2026.1.3.7" tag:"2026.2.0.0" tag:"2026.3.0.0"
%% --- Branch for 2026.2.0 (ALMA/VLA) Release ---
branch "release/2026.2.0 (casa-6.7.x-py3.12)" order: 4
checkout "release/2026.2.0 (casa-6.7.x-py3.12)"
commit id:"bugfix10"
commit id:"hotfix3" tag:"2026.2.0.5"
checkout main
%% === Post-Release Maintenance & Mainline Dev ===
commit id:"refactor3" tag:"2026.3.0.1"
commit id:"bugfix11" tag:"2026.2.0.2"
cherry-pick id:"hotfix3" tag:"2026.3.0.7"
commit id:"refactor4"
commit id:"refactor5"
checkout "release/2026.2.0 (casa-6.7.x-py3.12)"
cherry-pick id:"bugfix11" tag:"2026.2.0.3"
commit id:"hotfix4" tag:"2026.2.0.4" type: HIGHLIGHT
Branching Workflow
Development Phases
Feature Development
New features developed on main branch
Feature branches merged back to main
Regular integration and testing
Release Branching
Release branches created at feature freeze
Stabilization and bug fixes on release branches
Critical fixes cherry-picked back to main
Maintenance
Hotfixes applied to release branches
Important fixes backported as needed
Main branch continues with new development
Version Numbering
The project follows semantic versioning with the format: YEAR.MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO
YEAR: Calendar year (e.g., 2025, 2026)
MAJOR: Major release number within the year
MINOR: Minor feature releases
MICRO: Merges of features, bug fixes and hotfixes
Note
For detailed information about specific releases or development schedules, please refer to the project documentation or contact the development team.