Patch release -- Tentative date: Jan Feb

Release a candidate version

• Tag and release PYPI version [X.Y.Z]rc[K] following the contributing guide.
• Make sure all CI pipelines pass.
• Check the PyPI page
• Test pip install monai==[X.Y.Z]rc[K] and run a few MONAI modules locally
• Test all installation commands mentioned in the installation guide and the primary README.
• remove any promised deprecated functionality

Quality assurance for the relevant repos
The new PyPI release candidate should be checked against all the relevant repositories under Project-MONAI, for example, the tutorials repo

• Manually run all Jupyter notebooks, replace pip install monai with pip install monai==[X.Y.Z]rc[K].

Prepare documentation

• Draft a release note on GitHub. (including details about the breaking changes)
• Draft a release note with a pull request to modify the CHANGELOG.
• Check all the URLs in https://monai.io
• Check all the URLs in https://docs.monai.io.

Release a milestone version

• Tag and release PyPI version [X.Y.Z] following the contributing guide.
• Publish the release note on GitHub.
• Release the conda-forge version https://github.com/conda-forge/monai-feedstock (monai v0.8.1 conda-forge/monai-feedstock#2)