Design System Versioning Strategy and Breaking Changes Management

Define the versioning strategy for the [DESIGN SYSTEM NAME] design system, consumed by [NUMBER] teams/products and maintained by [NUMBER] people.\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\nDistribution: [NPM PACKAGE/MONOREPO/CDN]. Framework: [REACT/VUE/ANGULAR].\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**1) Semantic Versioning:**\\\\\\\\n- MAJOR (X.0.0): what constitutes a breaking change in the DS\\\\\\\\n  - Component removal\\\\\\\\n  - Prop removal or rename\\\\\\\\n  - API changes (children, slots, events)\\\\\\\\n  - Significant visual change that breaks layouts\\\\\\\\n- MINOR (0.X.0): what constitutes a backward-compatible addition\\\\\\\\n  - New component\\\\\\\\n  - New variant of existing component\\\\\\\\n  - New optional prop\\\\\\\\n  - Subtle visual improvement\\\\\\\\n- PATCH (0.0.X): what constitutes a fix\\\\\\\\n  - Visual bug fix\\\\\\\\n  - Accessibility fix\\\\\\\\n  - TypeScript type correction\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**2) Deprecation Process:**\\\\\\\\n- Timeline: announcement -> deprecation warning -> sunset\\\\\\\\n  - Minor: deprecation warning for [NUMBER] minor versions\\\\\\\\n  - Major: [NUMBER] months of coexistence\\\\\\\\n- How to mark a component/prop as deprecated in code\\\\\\\\n- Console warnings for consumers\\\\\\\\n- Visual indicator in Storybook\\\\\\\\n- Automatic codemod when possible\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**3) Migration Guides:**\\\\\\\\nFor each breaking change:\\\\\\\\n- Motivation: why the change was necessary\\\\\\\\n- Before/After: old code vs. new code\\\\\\\\n- Codemod script (jscodeshift) when applicable\\\\\\\\n- Estimated migration effort\\\\\\\\n- Edge cases and gotchas\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**4) Release Process:**\\\\\\\\n- Branching strategy for the DS\\\\\\\\n- Canary releases for early testing\\\\\\\\n- Release candidate (RC) with feedback period\\\\\\\\n- Automatic changelog (conventional commits)\\\\\\\\n- Release notes published to [CHANNEL]\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**5) Communication:**\\\\\\\\n- Announcement channel: [SLACK/EMAIL/WIKI]\\\\\\\\n- Monthly office hours for Q&A\\\\\\\\n- RFC (Request for Comments) for significant changes\\\\\\\\n- Design system council: who approves breaking changes\\\\\\\\n- Adoption dashboard (% of teams on latest version)\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**6) Rollback and Emergency:**\\\\\\\\n- How to revert a problematic release\\\\\\\\n- Hotfix process (bypass normal flow)\\\\\\\\n- Version pinning: when acceptable\\\\\\\\n- SLA for supporting old versions\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\n**7) Health Metrics:**\\\\\\\\n- Average time for teams to adopt new versions\\\\\\\\n- Number of teams on outdated versions\\\\\\\\n- Frequency of breaking changes per quarter\\\\\\\\n- NPS of the design system among consumers\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\nCurrent state: version [CURRENT VERSION], last breaking change [TIME AGO].