Putting open source to the test: The making of JBoss Enterprise Middleware
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“We’ve found a high-quality, easily scalable server that can
match our business growth, as well as superior professional
service from the expert developers behind the technology.”
– Michael McDonald, Director of Technology, Continental Airlines
In addition to assembling existing components into an integrated whole, the team may also develop new
tools and capabilities where needed to support requirements that are not normally addressed by the open
source community, such as migration or diagnostic tools.
dEfining PrOduct rElEAsE strAtEgy
The JBoss Enterprise Middleware product release schedule allows features and fixes to be delivered to
customers in an orderly way while maximizing the stability of their platform. A hierarchy of major releases,
minor releases, and cumulative patch releases provides IT organizations with a straightforward, manage-
able process. Because patch releases are made to the Enterprise branch of the code, customers are insu-
lated from ongoing development in the open source community.
While fixes and changes are made to the Enterprise branch, they are also given to the open source project
community, enabling the open source project software to benefit from innovations and patches made by
the Enterprise productization team.
When the definition process is begun for the next major release of an Enterprise product, the team
begins again by examining the open source community projects, enabling enterprise customers to
benefit from the vibrant development process that has been advancing the state of the art. Of course,
this new release then undergoes the same productization process to ensure enterprise-level quality,
stability, and performance.
tEsting functiOn And quAlity
The JBoss Enterprise Middleware product testing process delivers production-quality software that repre-
sents a safe choice for enterprise IT organizations. While open source projects such as JBoss.org projects
each conduct testing before releasing their components to the community for feedback, these tests may
not be sufficient to provide the level of quality and stability needed for production use. Community testing
may be limited in a variety of ways; depending on developer interest, certain use cases or configurations
may be well tested while others are ignored. The JBoss Enterprise Middleware product testing process
augments these tests with a wide range of additional component functional tests, integration tests, and
compatibility tests designed to raise the bar for quality and stability and allow enterprise IT organizations
to use the products with confidence. Wherever possible, real customer cases — test cases provided by cus
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tomers or discovered during the customer support process — are used in the testing process to ensure that
products meet customer expectations.
