To facilitate a new development cycle, there are a number of tasks to be completed.

Check dependencies and schedule updates

If a dependency has had a major version release, or has seen significant changes, consider upgrading it near the beginning of development.

Hints and procedures TBS.

Survey the community regarding priorities

Consult with DCAT.  Discuss proposed major work with non-developers.  Talk with service providers about their proposed contributions / pushing custom features to stock DSpace to widen the pool of maintainers.

How much can the developers reasonably accomplish in one cycle?

We only have a year to build, test, integrate, test, and document those fancy new features.

Sketch the list of major tasks and schedule them

Think about coordination among large contributions.  How can we have a controlled sequence of small disruptions rather than one big pile at the end of the cycle?

Accept that no plan ever survives contact with reality

There will be surprises.  There will be features that weren't thought of.  Leave time to deal with these.  Prepare to say "no" if you have to.

Create a page for planning the version after this one

See previous point.  Good ideas should be captured even if they can't be merged in this cycle.