We are constantly working on improving our roadmap planning process. When OpenMRS started, we didn't have a formal roadmap and stumbled through version releases. By release 1.5, we had developed the beginning of a Release Process. By 2012, we found that a purely road map-focused process was not meeting the needs of our implementations, so we formed a Roadmap Planning Group to help coordinate and continuously review/improve our road map process. We also created a Roadmap Planning Mailing List for discussions focused on designing/improving/feeding our road map. Our Road Map planning group failed to get enough momentum, so we fell into a those-who-are-able-and-willing-do-their-best-at-creating-a-straw-man-and-let-people-react-to-and-shape-the-roadmap-as-needed approach.

Canvassing for New Ideas & Features

Several sources are considered in determining which features get added to OpenMRS, including:

OpenMRS implementation site needs
OpenMRS priorities
Features requests within the issue tracker
Needs of ongoing projects
Module authors
Needs of ongoing grant-funded projects
Scrum of Scrums
Discussions from Design Forum

Other channels:

Review of current functionality of current ref and platform apps to identify features that could be improved.
Continuous review of competitor applications both open and proprietary systems
Implementer's monthly call ( to be established)

How do we determine features for the next release?

Features for the immediate next release are determined by :
- Reviewing OpenMRS Priorities
- Review tickets assigned to next two releases
- Review OpenMRS someday tickets
- Tickets that are likely to be punted for third time should be considered for "wontfix" or moved to OpenMRS Someday

Release after next
- New Features
- Any modules that should become core modules or absorbed into core?
- Review how modules are moving along with OpenMRS release

A survey will be circulated on talk presenting features that have been compiled for validation by the community. At the completion of the survey period, a prioritization meeting is held during one of the PM calls to finalize the list of features.

Platform 2.3 features validation can be found here

Platform Roadmap Planning Process:

Objective Lead: @Burke Mamlin Co Lead: TBD

	Status	Activity	Resources Needed	Duration	Completion Date	Comments

	Status	Activity	Resources Needed	Duration	Completion Date	Comments
1	completed	Agreeing the vision and strategic goal of the RoadMap activities	Community Core Ops Lead	Once a year	March 4th 2019
2	completed	Call out on all OMRS Communication channels announcing the commencement of the RoadMap planning Process	TPM	1 week	March 15 2019
3	completed	Identification of volunteer team members for core activities of the group, such as release management, BA, QA , testing	TPM Community Implementers Individual contributors	Continuous	April 15 2019
4	completed	Receive new feature requests from community Prioritization and Validation of feature requests Confirmation of feature owners and resourcing to develop feature (or go it alone)	TPM Community Implementers Individual contributors GSOC??	continuous (2-4 weeks window)	March 30 2019
5	STARTED	Commencement of Release Process	Release Manager, Community Dev's	8-15 weeks	June 7th 2019	August 31
6	STARTED	Quality Assurance & Testing	QA , Community, Community Dev's	4-6 weeks
7	completed	Application pushed for community alpha release (or criteria that meets an alpha release)	Release Manager, Community Dev's	4-6 weeks
8	completed	Beta Release	Release Manager, Community	4-6 weeks
9	not started	Completion of Release Process & Application Launch	Release Manager	4 weeks

Reference Application Roadmap Planning Process:

Objective Lead: TBD Objective Co Lead: @Burke Mamlin

	Status	Activity	Resources Needed	Duration	Completion Date	Comments

	Status	Activity	Resources Needed	Duration	Completion Date	Comments
1	Not done	Agreeing the vision and strategic goal of the RoadMap activities	Community Core Ops Lead	Once a year		Still looking to identify a Lead from the community
2	completed	Call out on all OMRS Communication channels announcing the commencement of the RoadMap planning Process	TPM	1 week	March 22 2019
3	started	Identification of volunteer team members for core activities of the group, such as release management, BA, QA , testing	TPM Community Implementers Individual contributors	Continuous	April 15 2019
4	completed	Receive new feature requests from community Prioritization and Validation of feature requests Confirmation of feature owners and resourcing to develop feature (or go it alone)	TPM Community Implementers Individual contributors GSOC??	continuous (2-4 weeks window)	March 30
5	ONGOING	Commencement of Release Process	Release Manager, Community Dev's	8-15 weeks	August 2019
6	not started	Quality Assurance & Testing	QA , Community, Community Dev's	4-6 weeks
7	not started	Application pushed for community alpha release (or criteria that meets an alpha release)	Release Manager, Community Dev's	4-6 weeks
8	not started	Beta Release	Release Manager, Community	4-6 weeks
9	not started	Completion of Release Process & Application Launch	Release Manager	4 weeks
10
11

How do I participate in the Technical OpenMRS Road Map Planning process?

Our hope is that through simply participating in the community (primarily via OpenMRS Talk), your voice will be heard and will help improve our roadmap. We especially welcome Business Analysts, Designers or volunteers who can serve as release managers.

What you need to become a release manager can be found here

What you need to become a Business Analyst can be found here

What if I want to propose a new feature?

New features at a minimum it must meet the following criteria:

Value to Health Equity
- Is there improvement in health status
Patient Safety impact
Quality of Care impact
Reusable module
Available resources
Who benefits
- To community
- More limited context
Potential to collaborate to develop feature

Features can be recommended via the following methods:

creating a ticket on JIRA
Completing this form here
Posting a topic on Talk.

We aim to respond to each feature request within 3-5 business days and aim to assign a business analyst to aid requirements drafting within 5-7 business days.

Other Criteria we use to asses which features are included in the roadmap are

Feature can be developed via collaboration (Synergistic opportunities) (ideally with funding)
Can meet one/more of the following requirements:
- A feature that will enhance the core functionality of the system (performance)
- A Feature that the community has been asking for sometime
- A feature that has not been asked for, but will make the excited
- A catalytic feature
Reasonable time & cost to completion
- Time to deliver vs. Impact?
Sustainability
Feasibility, desirability, viability,

Documentation

Technical Roadmap Planning