Release Status Meeting - 8.2.0 - Tomorrow, 2:00 PM EDT, various venues - Notes

[Greg Smith]

Hi All,

Marco, Greg, Kim, Joe, Paul, Eben, Chris, Scott, Jim, Denis, Michael and 
others people met on Tuesday July 1 at 2PM US ET via IRC, phone and in 
person.

Sorry for the long e-mail but it was a very productive meeting and I 
want to keep everyone in the loop.

Agenda is at: http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2008-June/015961.html

Here are a few basic notes and a list of action items.

Notes:
Lesson learned: Don't hold a meeting via phone and IRC at the same time. 
Choose one, preferably IRC if you want the broadest audience.

We opened the meeting mostly in person and on the phone then moved to 
IRC when we realized we couldn't do both simultaneously.

The first part talked about "What is Release 8.2.0". Worked from the 
definition at: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/8.2.0

We talked agreed its a time based release and talked about what that 
means (it goes when it reaches the right quality regardless of what 
features are in). Further definition at: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_Process_Home#Time-based_Releases

We talked about target customers, features and the definition of 
support. We agreed that the goal is to get it to G1G1 if its available 
in time.

Then we started walking through the "Release Contracts" page: 
http://dev.laptop.org/report/18
AKA Target Feature Set Including Status page linked from: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/8.2.0

We agreed that the relationship between the release contract and the 
roadmap is fuzzy. One is what we wanted originally:
http://dev.laptop.org/milestone/8.2.0%20(was%20Update.2)
the other is what we plan to do:
http://dev.laptop.org/report/18

Its not 100% clear how they map top each other and that needs to be 
explained better.

Focusing on the Target Feature Set Including Status page we covered a 
definition of what is a release contract. Paraphrasing, its an 
understanding between Michael and a developer that they can and will 
deliver a feature in time for the release.

Target Feature Set Including Status page 
(http://dev.laptop.org/report/18) lists everything which has a chance to 
make the release. We agreed that if you want to get something else on 
that page you should e-mail Michael the details.

We talked about what this page offers that we don't already have. The 
conclusion was that its a high level view of the main features in the 
release. Each item on this page should include a list of relevant bug id 
that give the next level of granularity.

Greg asked if this is too much process and no one said it was, definitively.

Greg also got agreement that each item on the Target Feature Set 
Including Status page needs a link to some documentation saying what the 
item includes. Consumers of this feature description are developers to 
comment on design, QA to write test cases, and product management to 
share with the plan with users. It can be a link to an existing web page 
(e.g. new Sugar UI).

Greg noted that we do not have much time to redesign the items listed so 
design changes on them may be deferred at the discretion of the feature 
owner.

The meeting mostly to IRC at this point and a discussion of where we are 
in the process and what "freeze" means. There was reference to the new 
release process: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_Process_Home and to 
other process draft pages.

Kim tried to drive consensus on how know what in this list will actually 
make the release: http://dev.laptop.org/report/18

There was discussion of the need to build a release candidate ASAP just 
to see where we are.

and other in draft processes and a picture:
http://teach.laptop.org/~mstone/d5.svg

Also a lot of discussion of how to pick a candidate build, when to pick 
one, how to build one and other good engineering details.

The result was encapsulated in two action items below.

I pasted all the IRC info I captured here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/8.2.0#Paste_of_part_of_IRC_Status_Meeting_Held_on_July_1

I missed much of it :-(  Anyone else who has a log please post it.

Aside from the communication challenges. It was a great meeting from my 
perspective. Thanks everyone!

When I say we agreed above it means that the people in the meeting 
agreed. If you feel otherwise its never too late to speak up.

Any feedback, comments, complaints, issues, edits, revisions of the 
notes or other input gratefully accepted, as always.

*****************
Action item
- Joe to help create and send out for review the release criteria by 
July 14.

- Kim will list all relevant builds in the 8.2.0 wiki page 
(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/8.2.0).

- Kim will write a definition of support including the meaning of 
backward compatibility in http://wiki.laptop.org/go/8.2.0

- Greg will improve of workflow of the web pages by July 15

- Kim will check with Peru and Greg will check with Uruguay teams to 
ensure that they do not plan to upgrade to 8.2.0. Action item due by 
July 20.

- Greg will check Kim's whiteboard for list of future customers and 
check if they are going to use the release. Action item due ASAP.

- Michael will send an e-mail entitled "freeze date Friday" that says 
essentially "everyone working features for 8.2.0 should get them in to 
joyride by Monday" if anyone can't get their feature in by then the 
burden of convincing him that their feature should be included will 
become progressively heavier. Action item due ASAP

- Michael will send an e-mail explaining the exception process. Action 
item due Monday.

- Dennis will create the branches as soon as he can and we'll start 
using it when we're ready. Action item due ASAP.


Thanks,

Greg S