Roadmap 2021-2023

The Roadmap Team presents the current version of the Roadmap, 2021-2023. This represents the second major roadmap cycle for FOLIO. In our early Roadmap, each release represented a major addition of new functionality for the LSP, such as supporting library purchase orders, managing loans, and supporting a full inventory of a library’s collection. As the FOLIO project has matured, the majority of the foundation in the major areas of resource access, resource management, and metadata management have introduced into the software. This next phase of the Roadmap has identified themes to enhance, expand and refine functionality in these major areas, as well as new areas to connect the FOLIO LSP to other systems, improve efficiencies and management of large quantities of data, and improve the technical infrastructure to support a growing system. While the Roadmap Team has identified themes for both near-term action and longer-term areas, we have specifically avoided assigning particular themes to specific “flower” releases. Development resources supplied by the FOLIO Community balance a number of different demands and priorities, along with practical considerations, when choosing what to develop next. Few resources are completely managed at a community level, and participants and members are likely to want to prioritize resources around areas that are of urgent importance to their constituents. We have attempted to assign years to different themes and subthemes; this is obviously easier the closer to the present day we are. It gets increasingly difficult farther out into the future, as the “cone of uncertainty” grows and the window for software development widens.

To better help the connection between the Roadmap and the development work, the Roadmap connects directly to the development issues contained with Jira. As new Jira issues are created and updated, they will be connected and added to the Roadmap as well. This should demonstrate progress to date on identified themes, and areas that are potentially under-explored or under-resourced.

Flower Releases Covered in the Roadmap

Currently FOLIO is generating three releases per, identified by their alphabetical “flower name.” This could change during the time period, depending on whether the schedule is compressed or expanded, or potentially a completely new method of release is introduced during the time period. 

The most recent release of FOLIO as of March, 2022 is the Kiwi Release (R3 2021) in December 2021.  See the Releases Home page for details about FOLIO releases.

Under the current system, the follow releases are covered in this Roadmap:

Roadmap Themes and Links to Jira

The themes below have been identified by the roadmap group, in consultation with many members of the FOLIO Community and formal groups within that community, as critical areas for development over the coming development cycles for FOLIO. This list is not exhaustive, and is subject to review and revision. The roadmap represents work that the community has identified as necessary to continue the adoption of FOLIO as a preferred library services platform. Where possible, the roadmap provides a broad timeframe within which issues, functionality, and performance can be addressed in order to achieve better market fit. While the roadmap functions at a somewhat abstracted level (i.e., not overly detailed), it guides the development of the FOLIO software via themes and sub-themes. As we move further away from the next few release cycles, the “cone of uncertainty” continues to widen and actual development activity may vary from what is identified. There are also some themes and subthemes that do not yet have dedicated resources identified for their development, though they have been identified as themes of interest by various FOLIO groups. The specific accomplishments listed herein are dependent on developer and PO capacity over time. The theme order is alphabetical. Each theme and subtheme contains a link to the corresponding Jira issue, which can then be followed to see specific development products associated with each theme, allowing for real time information on the status of development.

Colors alternate between orange and blue for readability. If a cell is not colored in, work has not specifically been assigned during the identified time period. The timeframe will be updated as features get assigned.

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Appendix:

Roadmap Task Force Charge

Task Force Members: