Hi Lewis,
Yes, exactly.
I would like to keep this as regular as possible.
The stepped-up number should be the next *planned* release on the branch that the development is aimed at, so - using current EPICS Base as an example we are all familiar with - on the release/3.15 branch after releasing 3.15.5, the name would be 3.15.6-DEV, and on the release/3.16 branch after 3.16.1, the name would be 3.16.2-DEV. On master, the name would be 3.17-DEV until the release/3.17 branch is created. At that point the name changes to 3.17.0-DEV on the newly created branch and to 3.18-DEV on master.
This ensures that a name is always unambiguously pointing to one specific segment (between two release tags or branch points) on one specific branch.
The name that Michael proposes (3.16.1.1-DEV) would be used on a release/3.16.1 branch that might be created off the 3.16.1 release tag to prepare an important patch that must be published immediately and cannot wait until the 3.16.2 release.
I think this scheme is clear and easy enough, and it matches and works exactly the same with the Maven project versions on the Java side of things.
Cheers,
~Ralph