Checklist

Things to look at and update for a release:

Bump sonames as needed for libpulse, etc.
Update the NEWS file (for stable releases)
git push master:master
Make a signed tag, run make dist(check), test the tarball
git push vX.Y:vX.Y
Send out release announcement
Update: PA home page, IRC topic, release notes (with git shortlog)
Spread the word
Sit back and fret about what it is that you're forgetting

The Plan

This schedule is a guideline to keep a set of rolling releases rather than a longer cycle with lots of changes in between.

All releases happen off the master branch, and are numbered as N.0
If a release introduces a major bugs/regressions that need immediate attention, a stable-N.x branch is created and point releases in that series (N.1, N.2, ...) are made off this branch
Major releases are planned to be made every 4 months
A feature freeze will be announced ~3-6 weeks before the release, depending on how large the changes that have gone into the release are
Periodic release candidate tarballs will be rolled out during the freeze period for easy packaging and testing
World domination is targeted for December ~~2012~~ 2013

Current Release: 5.0

Target release date: 2013-10-03
Target freeze date: undecided
Actual freeze date: not happened yet
Actual release date: not happened yet

Blocker bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65348

Previous releases

Release: 4.0

Target release date: 2013-04-18
Target freeze date: 2013-03-28
Actual freeze date: 2013-03-28
Actual release date: 2013-06-03

Release: 3.0

Target date: Sep 25th, 2012
Target freeze date: Sep 11th, 2012
Actual freeze date: Oct 31st, 2012
Actual date: Dec 18th, 2012

Blockers

Vala patches [Alexander Kurtz]
~~pa_once bug~~ done
~~module-profile-switcher [Arun Raghavan]~~ deferred
~~module-bluetooth-policy [Frederic Dalleau]~~ done
~~Fixed resamplers [Pierre-Louis Bossart]~~ deferred
~~NEON sconv/mixing [Peter Meerwald]~~ partially done
~~Win32 build fixes (Thomas Martitz)~~ done

Release: 2.0

Target date: March 26th, 2012
Target freeze date: Feb 27th, 2012
Actual date: May 11th, 2012

Blockers

Blocker bugs are tracked on bug #45812

The following patches need to be re viewed and evaluated to see if merging is achievable within a bound timeframe.

Vala patches [Alexander Kurtz]
~~Jack detection [David Henningsson]~~ done
~~module-profile-switcher [Arun Raghavan]~~ deferred
~~module-bluetooth-policy [Frederic Dalleau]~~ deferred
~~Fixed resamplers [Pierre-Louis Bossart]~~ deferred
~~NEON sconv/mixing [Peter Meerwald]~~ deferred
~~More Orc [Maarten Bosmans]~~ deferred

Highlights

These should go into release notes.

Alternate sample rates
Echo cancellation: WebRTC canceller, AGC
Fixed HURD support
A2DP decoder quality improvements
Infrastructure + Implementation for headphone/mic jack detection
Virtual Surround sink support
Xen Paravirtualised audio sink (#43503)