• adding additional verification checks - we've began the process of adding lib checkers to our build process so that we get warnings if binary compatibility is broken - this will ensure that issues such as the recent sql+ issue cannot happen again (or the older telerik issue)
• a developer advisorory group was created allowing earl access to builds so that 3rd party module developers can test their modules earlier - this should help highlight any configuration changes that cause problems (such as the profile module issues that we suffered recently). This has been in place for a few versions now, but needs work to be more effective - i'll leave that up to QA to decide how best to use this valuable resource.
• we're constantly adding unit tests so that our coverage increases with each version
• we've expanded what we test to include lots of new areas. Doing work on areas recently not only introduced errors, but also surfaced longstanding issues that were not apparent e.g. at least 1 of the recent security fixes resolved a longstanding profile issue that only became apparent when new code was added. We're working hard on recognising what additional testing we have to add to our build verification tests.
• we've been doing more and more work on taking community contributions both through gemini and through codeplex - each of the past few releases have a number of community contributions. IMO making core edits (effectively a fork) is not a great idea, instead I suggest submitting them to us, we welcome any contribution and are keen to resolve any issues that are making life hard for people.

Thanks,
Cathal