Is there any specification for promoting a release candidate?

Question

I'm wondering this because it's just dawned on me that I've never been involved with a company the provided release candidates before and I see the term being used more and more these days so I would like to be a little more clear on their implications.

For anyone who has actually worked for a company who provides RC's before...does there happen to be any more formal specification for what a release candidate actual entails (like the difference between an RC and a Beta), or is it just a policy thing that each company decides for itself?

If you do happen to work for a company that does have this kind of specification, could you possibly provide some examples of some of the guidelines that it reads do promote a version to 'release candidate'.

Answer 1

I've seen the word RC used in two ways:

1. As an actual release candidate. This is the build we are going to ship to customers unless we find some showstopper. No new builds will be made until a major bug is found, then a new build is spun and we start again. Typically anywhere from 3-10 of these builds exist before shipping.
2. As a "better-than-beta" build. There is no intention of actually shipping the build, it is just an interim checkpoint somewhere between beta and release. Typically there are no new features over the beta, just stability. This is how Microsoft has used the term on the Windows team in recent years (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista).

I prefer the first use myself. It makes much more sense.