For comparison, the recent Django 1.2 release estimates:

  Update Tickets Blocking  RC 1 Est  Rel Est
  Mar 09     120       --  Mar 22    Mar 29
  Mar 16      84       --  Apr 05    Apr 12
  Mar 23      69       --  Apr 05    Apr 12
  Apr 01      54       23  Apr 19    Apr 26
  Apr 07      46       14  Apr 19    Apr 26
  Apr 14      49       14  Apr 26    May 03
  Apr 22      51        8  May 03    May 10
  Apr 28      48        2  May 03    May 10
  May 05      --*       0  Released  May 10
  May 15      --        0  Released  May 17
  May 17      --        0  Released  Released

These were taken from the Django blog: http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/. About once a week, they had a comprehensive update with bug counts and revised estimates. If anyone wanted to help with the release, the blog told them exactly what parts needed the most work. They were nearly 2 months later than their initial estimate, but it wasn't a problem because everyone knew what to expect.

* Total ticket counts weren't given after RC1 dropped. All open tickets as of RC1 were translation or documentation related.