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The level of labor is very much tied to the release cycle. It works like this:
1. PLANNING, BUILDING, TESTING, RELEASE PHASE
Let's take UberStudent 3.0 as phase-point. In April 2013, I began making UberStudent 3.0. That entails a whole lot, and a whole lot of labor--writing code, doing artwork, building packages, making test builds, and repeating that process until I am happy with everything and am confident to make a release. This is very much the most labor intensive phase. It lasted two months with version 3.0 and three months with version 4.0. I'll easily devote 40 hours per week to UberStudent during this phase, plus sometimes an entire weekend: from when I get up to when I go to sleep.
2. BUG FIX PHASE
Then, despite my best efforts to make sure everything is just right before making a release, I'll inevitably have to fix some things as people report them to me or as I discover them myself. So I make fixes, almost always within 24 hours and almost always usually less, of the issue coming to my attention. This means figuring out how to make fixes, writing code for them, building new versions of packages that contain the fixes, and adding them in to the repository so that updates apply the fixes. This phase is also labor intensive, but not as much as the first phase. I'd guess 18-20 hours per week.
3. STABLE PHASE
Then comes the stable phase. Much fewer issues are reported, and if they are, they are usually related to getting odd hardware to work. And new versions of programs get released, so I have to test them, build packages for them, and release them in to the repository. Still, labor again lessens during this phase, and can be a little as 10 hours per week. I breath a lot, spend more time with my wife and children, and may take on extra duties at my regular full-time job.
4. END-OF-LIFE / PLANNING FOR NEW RELEASE PHASE
Finally comes the end-of-life-phase--the release is slated to be replaced. I begin researching a lot for things like any major upstream bug issues I need to know about, new programs, dying programs, improved programs, etc. More than anything, I build up my emotional reserves during this time because the whole cycle is about to repeat and soon I am again going to be devoting some very long hours to UberStudent for a season.
_________________ UberStudent Must Become Self-Sustaining. If UberStudent and my dedicated support of it has benefited you, it's important to make a donation. Thanks!The UberStudent Headquarters:* Mobo: MSI 870-G45
* Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 3.4GHz
* RAM: G.SKILL 8GB DDR3 1600
* Graphics: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
* Drive: OCZ Vertex SSD
* Case: Rosewill ATX Mid Tower
* Monitors: 2 x Dell UltraSharp
* With UberStudent 4.3 Development Build You should build your own computers, too!
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