From:	Nathan Cornillon (Exchange)
Sent:	Wednesday, November 17, 1999 2:55 PM
To:	Murthy Srinivas (Exchange); Michele Freed (Exchange); Alex Armanasu (Exchange)
Cc:	Chris Steck (Exchange)
Subject:	RE: Alpha Plan Open Issue
Alpha Refresh Dates
	Dec 16	We will review the bugs we have to decide if we need to do a refresh Jan 17.  
	Jan 3	We will review the bugs we have to decide if we need to do a refresh Jan 17, if we haven't already decided to do so.
	Jan 17	We migth be an Alpha refreshed based on the bugs we've recieved.

Alpha Refresh Criteria:
The bugs have to - 
•	be blocking bugs with no work around
•	be reproducable

If we can't make a drop that is better in a meaningful way, we will wait until the Beta when we can.

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Murthy Srinivas (Exchange)  
Sent:	Wednesday, November 17, 1999 1:04 PM
To:	Michele Freed (Exchange); Nathan Cornillon (Exchange); Alex Armanasu (Exchange)
Cc:	Chris Steck (Exchange)
Subject:	RE: Alpha Plan Open Issue

Alex, Nathan and I discussed this last night.  The decision to have drops (other than the scheduled Alpha, Beta etc) should be based on
•	feedback w.r.t tool
•	how many blocking bugs they've found
•	how we're planning on reproing and when we can fix the blocking bugs

While we don't want to do too many drops we also want to make sure we're being responsive to blocking customer issues.  Alex and Nathan will figure out a "checkpoint date" to evaluate the data and we can decide then.

Additionally, we should make sure that even if we can't or don't make additional drops we do fix the major customer reported problems  for Beta to demonstrate progress.  May require revisiting the Beta date later.

murthys

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Michele Freed (Exchange)  
Sent:	Wednesday, November 17, 1999 12:45 PM
To:	Nathan Cornillon (Exchange); Alex Armanasu (Exchange)
Cc:	Murthy Srinivas (Exchange); Chris Steck (Exchange)
Subject:	RE: Alpha Plan Open Issue

I agree that waiting until end of Feb is way to long..... but, doing a drop a week is way to much, both for us and the customer. The JDP are used to IDW drops, which until recently was much further apart. In general, monthly drops are sufficient.  

I assume the bugs will be fixed in the tool between now and January so it makes sense to do an alpha refresh then - December is a waste as so many folks will be Y2k crazy.

Why can't we make a drop in Jan?

Thanks

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Nathan Cornillon (Exchange)  
Sent:	Tuesday, November 16, 1999 3:21 PM
To:	Alex Armanasu (Exchange); Murthy Srinivas (Exchange); Michele Freed (Exchange); Chris Steck (Exchange)
Subject:	Alpha Plan Open Issue

Today AlexArm and I (NathanC) reviewed the User State Migration Tool’s alpha plan.  The key unresolved issues arose in the Issues Resolution section.  The plan says “If needed, there will be a new drop as often as once a week to fix blocking issues.”  The open issue is: Should we have any drops between Alpha and Beta?
Alex felt we should have no drops until the Beta drop (currently estimated to be End of Feb.).  After his explanation that time spent doing alpha drops is time lost to Odyssey features, I agreed the original statement was too often.  However, we were unable to come to an agreement on if any drops should be done between the alpha and beta.  JDPs want to use the alpha to see how it fits into their migration plans, and what they can gain from it.  Blocking issues will come up making it impossible for them get an accurate gage of this.  Being totally unresponsive for one quarter (Dec, Jan, Feb) doesn’t seem good for customer relations.  It also seems likely they will consider the tool, and their problems, unimportant to us.  
The tool is trying to help them solve their user state migration issues so we can have more Windows 2000 Professional desktops up and running as fast as possible.  It is important this tool is a success and helps ease this process.  An additional drop Jan 17th (assuming beta drop is end of Feb) show the JDP we are responsive, and help them keep moving forward using our tool.  Most of the time between the Alpha drop and Jan 17th is busy with the holidays, so the half a quarter shouldn’t be too bad of a wait.