Release checklist

A work-in-progress checklist of tasks for creating a release:

Ensure @cartopy-devs are aware of a forthcoming release. Try to give at least a 2 week window for minor versions increments (note: versions follow major.minor.patch).
To define the scope of the release, update milestones and chase-up PRs which we want to see in the release.
Update the what's new documentation with highlights and deprecations. An attempt to keep this up-to-date throughout the development process should be made, though inevitably things slip through the gap.

Once everything is in place:

Cut a release branch for major or minor releases. Branch name should be v{major}.{minor}.x.
Increment the release on master. This should take the form of v{new_major}.{new_minor}.dev1. Place where version is important: setup.py, lib/cartopy/__init__.py, docs/source/_static/version_switch.js.
Tag a release with these versions correctly set. A release candidate may be necessary for invasive changes - communicate this with cartopy-dev before the fact.
Build the documentation for the tagged version. Ensure that your build is from a clean checkout, and doesn't have any configuration files etc. (cartopy.siteconfig). Add this built documentation to https://github.com/SciTools/scitools.org.uk. It will need to be uploaded once merged - @pelson has upload permission to scitools.org.uk.

TODO:

Provide feedback