[Change Request]: FOCUS versioning related docs need clarification

[udam-f2]

Documents

• FOCUS Versioning Design Document
• #525 [Change Request]: FOCUS versioning related docs need clarification

Description

The Readme file at the base of the FOCUS repository says the following:

Changes to the specification are versioned according to Semantic Versioning 2.0 and described in CHANGELOG.md. Layout changes are not versioned. Specific implementations of the specification should specify which version they implement.

FOCUS specification doesn't explicitly mention anything about SemVer.

After discussions about the data specification semantics, upcoming release schedules, upcoming themes for releases, and marketing reasons, we determined the following:

• Versioning should stick to x.y.z (where the .z would be reserved for 'hotfix' type releases.
• FOCUS v2.0.0 should be reserved for when the maturity, adoption levels are high and the payload justifies it. Right now it's too early to market something as a v2.0

Proposed Approach

Given the above description, the group discussing versioning decided that we should

• Still use x.y.z versioning
• Don't refer to it as SemVer
• Come up with a format for specifying changes and possibly capturing severity - from an integration and consumption compatibility perspective.
• The changelog should be defined in the format specified above and should possibly make it into the spec content

GitHub Issue or Reference

No response

Context

No response

Data Submission for Discussion

No response

[jpradocueva]

Action Items from Maintainers' call on Aug 26th:

• [ ] [Maintainers-#525] Udam - @udam-f2 : To draft the versioning strategy and incorporate it into the spec and repository.

[jpradocueva]

Action Items from TF-3 call on Sep 6:

• [ ] [TF1-#525] Udam, @udam-f2 : Review and clean up the versioning-related documentation in the repository.
• [ ] [TF1-#525] Udam, @udam-f2 : Add a new versioning section to the FOCUS specification detailing types of changes and their impacts on versioning.
• [ ] [TF1-#525] All team members: Review and provide feedback on the updated versioning documentation before the next release.