Jerry Rigs Software Maturity Ratings

This is my rating system.  I wrote this in support of software reviews that I do. There are other, more well defined systems. This is good enough.

Software has a lifecycle. In the beginning, it is useless or even harmful. Then it shows a glimmer of hope that it might be useful someday. Then it almost works but doesn’t. Then the magic moment arrives when it is actually works. Mostly. Or at least looks like it will work soon. Finally, the software becomes stable enough for production environments. Then it gets to a point that you just trust it to work and depend on it. At least until the next release (grin).

0 – Alpha

Initial development. Basic functionality and features still being implemented. Not expected to work for anybody except perhaps the developer.

1 – Beta

Being prepared for release. Basic functionality and features mostly implemented and being tested. Use at your own risk. Lots of open feature requests and bug reports.

2 – Initial Public Release

Version 1.0. Buggy. Being used by more people in unexpected ways exposes bugs. Typically not ready for production use. Many open feature requests and bug reports.

3 – Unstable

Similar to 2 but indicates it is not the initial release. Still buggy. Not ready for production use. Many open feature requests and bug reports.

4 – Mostly Stable

All base functionality and features usable by most users without crashing or corrupting data for extended periods of time. Performs as expected or as documented. Many open feature requests and few bug reports.

5 – Stable

All base functionality and features usable by all users without crashing or corrupting data. Performs as expected or as documented. Very few open feature requests or bug reports.

--je