The RTW(Release to web) is a PROD release done every 6 weeks. Code changes will be deployed to the trunk of the project. The bits will be production-ready and will be officially supported by Microsoft Paid Support.

As per the release cycles, prior to an RTW, the final QA build will be available post the feature freeze of the development cycle. This is expected to be available two weeks before the planned RTW. The build consists of all the contributions that will be part of the current RTW release. It is highly recommended that all contributors test their additions once the final QA build is ready. A contributor is able to verify if the code is performing as expected post integration will be very helpful in case of bugs.

Accessing the changes:

The final QA build will be available as part of the QA branch corresponding to the current release about two weeks before the planned RTW.

Deployment:

The build can be downloaded and installated on a TEST server.

1. Ensure that you are deploying QA build to a TEST server only. The changes are not PROD ready.

2. Please follow the installation guide for installation details.

Testing:

The issues addressed/ features added in the build will be made available. Test cases should be available along with the comments associated with the pull request. 

Please ensure that you add meaningful comments to the issue tracker to indicate that a change has been tested. These will act as feedback to the contributor. Samples of comments are:

RELEASE: The release that the test was conducted for. E.g. QA1.3.1W4

GREEN: The change has been tested and was completely as specified by the contributor. Issue is completely fixed

OR

AMBER: The change works partially.

The following aspects work correctly : ____

The following aspects are working partially i.e. under the following set of conditions: ______

The following aspects do not seem to work : ____

OR

RED: The change works partially.

The following aspects are working partially i.e. under the following set of conditions: ______

The following aspects do not seem to work : ____

The comments will help the contributors to make any last minute changes if required. The comments will also help acertain if the change is ready to be a part of the RTW.

Once QA sign off is obtained the RTW can be done.