Feature Retirement Process
As part of LiveAction's ongoing desire to maximize customer value, it is necessary to periodically retire older features from products. Retiring features allows LiveAction to focus engineering energy on innovation and evolution rather than maintenance of legacy code. Like many things, product features have a life cycle. For example:
◦ Some features are never widely adopted by the broader user community.
◦ Some features that interact with older platforms may no longer make sense to support.
◦ Some legacy features are made redundant by newer implementations.
◦ Some features that made sense in an earlier era may not fit with changes to market conditions.
◦ Some features may be dependent on a particular vendors capability which may be going EOL.
◦ The expense of modernizing an older feature may outweigh the value to the market at large.
◦ The feasibility of replicating a feature for newer generations of devices may be impractical.
Retirement is considered when the cost of supporting or enhancing a feature outweighs the value it would provide to clients or the market at large.
LiveAction recognizes that feature retirement may be disruptive and controversial at times. To mitigate this disruption as much as possible, LiveAction will provide:
◦ Clear and periodic communication from LiveAction.
◦ At least 12 months of posted notice before retiring a feature.
◦ Continued support until the retirement date.
◦ Potential alternative solutions to the retired feature.
LiveAction welcomes client feedback and dialogue. To provide the maximum level of transparency, LiveAction will designate two different classes for retirement.
1. Scheduled for retirement – This designation will have a date associated with it. That date will mark the last release that will contain the retired feature. The feature will not exist in releases after that date. When announced, the date will be at least 12 months in the future.
2. Candidate for future retirement – This designation is softer. These candidates are not yet scheduled but are likely targets for a future scheduled date. Features in this category are unlikely to see any significant enhancements. However, this designation does give clients an opportunity to provide feedback that might shape the decision process. Once candidates become scheduled, the 12-month timer will start counting.
When either type of retirement announcement is posted, it will generally come with an explanation for the decision, potential alternatives, and other relevant items.
Rare exceptions to this process may exist. These exceptions will primarily occur when a 12-month warning is not possible. Examples may include:
◦ A security vulnerability where no patch is available.
◦ An underlying software package changes its ownership or support model.
The LiveAction product team encourages clients to reach out if there are questions about the overall retirement process or a specific retirement designation.