@Justin Tadlock - Too bad few understand this exciting concept. While features will be developed as plugins first and will be added once "They're ready" or even never added, WordPress core development can actually focus on core meaning platform improvements. Version releases won't have to take three months anymore with possibly delays.

The question I have is what happens to the WordPress roadmap? Does this new development process negate the need for one? http://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/ all we see is versions numbers not knowing what to expect. How will people know what features as plugins should be developed in order to fit into a specific version?

I can partially answer my own question. I think the tandem development cycle will now be the norm instead of the exception. It only makes sense to have a goal for the next version and have people working on plugins for that version during the current dev cycle. As long as 2-3 features as plugins are ready for inclusion into core, this tandem dev strategy should work.