Cross-cutting Tip #10
Release waves are over, and your repository still speaks wave
The twice-yearly release wave is gone in favour of one always-on roadmap, so every reference you named after a wave has stopped being maintained.
Microsoft retired the twice-yearly release wave in September 2026. Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Dataverse roadmap content now publishes to the AI at Work roadmap, where each item carries In Development, Rolling Out or Launched and stays current as it moves between them, instead of arriving with a wave number and a date. Release Planner retires by 15 November 2026, and there is no 2027 wave to wait for.
Anything you named after a wave has stopped being maintained
Wave-era names stop being true without breaking anything. A board column still works, a pipeline parameter
still runs, a wiki page still loads, and every one of them says something that is no longer the case. Search
your repositories and documentation for release wave, wave 1, RW1 and release plan.
Set your own planning dates
A wave gave every organisation the same two dates a year to gather stakeholders and set a delivery window. The roadmap is continuous, and it has filters, CSV export, RSS and stable feature IDs if you want to build a view around it, so put the habit in the calendar yourself.
Message Center has not changed, and it is still the record for your own tenant: the roadmap says what is coming, Message Center says what has reached yours.
A board column will outlive the thing it is named after
Release Planner is going. Export anything you still need from it, then replace release-plan links in your docs, pipeline comments and onboarding notes with links to the roadmap. Start with the bookmarked release plans and the pinned “wave 1” boards.