Phases of development, represented as a funnel gradually getting smaller as fewer and fewer patches are accepted. In Development Phase, anything goes: major new APIs, new features, etc. Feature Completion Phase allows for tying up loose ends on features that are already committed, or significantly in progress. Clean-Up Phase is for stabilization, better consistency, and completing conversions to new APIs. Polish Phase moves to focus on the upgrade path, performance optimization, and improving docs. Finally, during Release Phase, we crank on critical bugs until we release!
