Most of open source software development use the semantic versioning [1],
where each release is tagged with numbers in the following format:
major.minor.patch.
This article try to explain what, why, when, and how to use versioning in our
software development cycle.
What is versioning?
A version indicate a milestone, a release, a time between development cycle since last release to the next release.
vX.Y.Z --> features/bugs --> UI/UX design --> development --> testing --> vX'.Y'.Z'
Why versioning?
By using versioning,
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Help on regression. For example, user report that a specific bug is occured after version X.20.0 but not before that. By knowing this, developer can do a regression on their commits after those version to look for the cause.
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Incremental changes. Versioning can help product owner and developers to track their progress and tasks. After releasing new version, product owner then prioritize the next tasks (feature or bugs) for the next version.
When to create new version?
Version should be create every T times, where T could be number of weeks or months. For example, every 6 weeks, 1 month, every 3 months, etc. Product owner and developer must consistent on T, except when there is a security related fixes.
How to versioning
There are three number in version: major, minor, and patch. One of number will be incremented on the next release depends on the changes from previous release.
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Major number. Major number is rarely incremented, because its indicate a major changes that is affect all function in a program. When the major number incremented all minor and patch number must be reset to zero. Version 0 usually indicate software in development phase, not feature complete. A program will get version 1 if all features has been implemented. The next value (version 2) will happened if a program has major refactoring, since this changes affect all function in application, the version must be incremented. For example,
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when backend API has new version,
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when framework change from X to Y,
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when changing the storage layer from using X to another embedded database.
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Minor number. Minor number is incremented when an application introduce or remove at least one feature since their previous release. When minor number is incremented the patch number must be reset to zero.
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Patch number. Patch number is incremented when the next release only has bug fixes (including security related fixes).
Question and Answers
Should version include prefix v?
Yes, otherwise it would be interpreted as another information, for example a date, a time, or Dewey Decimal Number.
What if we have N tasks for the next T, but at the end of T, one or more tasks is not finished yet?
If the unfinished tasks is feature, it should be postponed to the next release. If its bug then it should also be postponed to the next release. Project owner and development should prioritize bug fixes on top of new features as possible and know which bugs should be higher than any other bugs so they can prioritize it higher for the next release.
What if we have a feature and a bug fix for the next release?
It counted as increment in minor number.
For example, if previous version is v1.2.3 and the next release has one new
feature and one or more bug fixes, then the next release should be v1.3.0,
not v1.3.1.