PHP 8.6 Release Manager

I'm excited to announce that I will be serving as the "veteran" release manager for the PHP 8.6 release cycle. In that role I will be mentoring two new "rookie" release managers to ensure a smooth and successful release process.

Like last year when I was elected one of the rookie release managers for PHP 8.5, selection was done through a public vote; you can see the results on the PHP Wiki. This year we had seven candidates volunteer, and the community elected Matteo Beccati and Joe Ferguson.

While they begin to work through the onboarding instructions, the steps for veteran release managers are not as well documented. Over the next few months, I plan to document the steps for future veteran release managers to perform to help onboard new rookies. While the exact job of the veteran release manager is not well defined at the moment, there is an ongoing RFC (discussion thread) to clarify and formalize the role.

I hope the new release managers find my various blog posts about the process helpful, and I look forward to working with them to release PHP 8.6 this November.