Funny how time flies. It doesn't seem like 18 months have passed since we blogged about Day Software's slipping development schedule on its flagship Communiqué Web CMS product. But that's how long it's been.

Version 4 of Communiqué first appeared in late 2005. Since then, there have been only relatively minor point releases. The current version (reviewed in our Web CMS Report 2008) is 4.2.

In early 2007, Day said that Version 5 of Communiqué (said to be mostly a back-end refactor, although UI enhancements were promised) would be released in the second half of the year. Over the summer, that changed to the "first half of 2008." Day now says it is looking at a "late fall" (2008) release of 5.0.

Does this mean the pace of R&D has slowed at Day? No. The company released two major products in 2007: CQ Advanced Collaboration (a set of wiki, blog, and calendar tools for use with Communique), and CQ DAM (a standalone digital asset management solution), coming out in November. There have been other developments since 2005 as well. Day has introduced a variety of JCR Connectors (to allowed JCR access to things like SharePoint and the Documentum repository) and sells a standalone version of its own JCR repository, CRX.

Why, then, the long wait for Communiqué 5.0? It can't be for want of resources. Last year, Day grew its development staff by 40 percent, its QA headcount by 50 percent, and added five (much-needed) technical writers. These additions do not include the three founders of Mindquarry (the social software startup), who joined Day after their company shuttered in Q4.

The long wait for Communiqué 5.0 could just be the result of numerous distractions over the past two years (very lucrative ones, in the form of CQ AC, CQ DAM, and the JCR connectors). Or it could be the result of diversion of engineering resources to support large customers deals. Or it could be that Day is grooming itself for a possible takeover.

Whatever the factors at play, Day's priorities vis-à-vis Communiqué seem clear. Version 5.0 can wait.