As mentioned in http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Release_process_%28Combined%29#5_weeks_prior

Prepare a fresh installation of the QA site based on the beta code to make sure the site is not affected by incremental upgrade steps during the development cycle.

Procedure:

1. Disable both the hourly and daily syncs
2. Set up qamaster directly
3. Reassign issue to marycooch to add courses and other content
4. Mary to reassign issue when done, then both sync scripts can be re-enabled