Categorisation of Alpha/Beta feedback

The suggestion is to define criteria for the categorisation of issues received in the Alpha/Beta/Member feedback stages.

This will enable us to prioritise effectively, and thereby restrict the changes being made during the later stages (Beta and Member releases) to Critical changes only. This will mitigate the risk of impact to the Production release, from changes that could wait for the next release cycle without having any adverse effect on the Production content.

This already takes place internally within SNOMED International, but would be even more effective if we could take into account criteria from the community during these deliberations, in order to ensure that members' interests are continually represented in this context.

The question for the TRAG is whether or not we can design effective criteria, or if this must be a subjective decision in all cases. If the latter, then we should discuss the formation of a CAB for Alpha/Beta feedback prioritisation.

If we can create useful criteria then we should do so, in order to then trial them during the next International release cycle.