Greg's Weekly report

[Greg Smith]

Hi All,

Here's my weekly report below.

BTW I would love help on any of these items. I am going to be squeezed 
by three releases all needing attention at the same time:

- 8.2 finalize and launch
- 8.2.1 kick off
- 9.1 Strategy, process and top feature set definition

I can find plenty of sub-tasks (e.g. check and edit the open bugs 
section of 8.2 release notes, or start to triage and mark bugs for 
8.2.1, or collect and organize 9.1 requirements in to groups, etc).

The best help is a few hours a week over a few months. Send me a note on 
list or off if you want to chip in. We could even create a Product 
Management "Gang" if there is enough interest...

Thanks,

Greg S

*************
Status of last week's goals.

1 - Identify, triage and clarify 8.2 blocker bugs. Help get us to a well
defined final release schedule.

GS - Closed all bugs in finalize state. If they needed documentation I 
added that to the release notes.

Triaged all incoming bugs.

Worked with Michael to create an ECO explaining
final steps to close the release. See: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ECO/8.2.0/Checklist

2 - Update 8.2 release notes

GS - Edited and tweaked notes for clarity. Still need to organize the 
open bugs section and rewrite in to user understandable descriptions.

3 - Write 8.2 launch plan. To include lists, web sites and other ideas 
for getting the word out. Once done, this will sit on the shelf until 
the release is final.

GS - Started presentation. Otherwise not enough progress on this.

4 - Update 9.1 page with more requirements. Add Uruguay, Haiti, Rwanda,
Birmingham, Mongolia, Ethiopia, others. Start writing strategy section
and set schedule.

GS - Wrote brief strategy blurb outlining 3 main goals of the 9.1 
(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0) release. Met with Sugar design team 
and planned for more regular meetings. Got a de-brief from Erik on his 
trip to Uruguay and Peru. Need to add his input to the 9.1 page when I 
get more details.

5 - Find engineering lead for 8.2.1. If none is identified, start laying
out the parameters anyway (e.g. date, target customers, goals, target
bug fixes, additional featurettes to consider etc.).

GS - Met with Ed (new SW VP) and wrote up some broad outlines of release 
8.2.1. Doing one round of internal edits before posting for public comment.

6 - Update deployments page with latest data, improve timeline and add
timeline to releases page.

GS - Working with Reuben, started regathering deployment status source 
data and getting approval to post on the public page. Thanks to 
Skierpage, got a timeline on the releases page but need to tweak it and 
the whole page before moving completely to new format (see bottom of 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Releases)

7 - Prune outdated material off OLPC wiki home page.

GS - Sent e-mail to stake holders proposing removal of old links in 
Deployments, Developments and News sections of 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki. No reply yet.

****************
Goals for next week in priority order:

1 - Hound engineers to close all 8.2.0 blockers (see 
http://dev.laptop.org/report/28) and get a firm date for the Release 
Candidate build. Triage bugs and keep the release on schedule.

2 - Clean up open bugs section of 8.2. release notes. Get release notes 
ready for final review.

3 - Write 8.2 launch plan and technical overview presentation.

4 - Share and post 8.2.1 time frame and operating procedure (e.g. Trac 
queries). Start planning for Early Field Trial/Beta of 8.2.1. Keep 
pushing for an engineering leader/owner of 8.2.1.

5 - Review and finalize short 9.1 strategy description. Restructure 
requirements section to align with strategy. Fold in more deployment 
requirements. Keep pushing for an engineering leader/owner of 9.1. 
Stretch goal: prepare to write detailed requirements sections and start 
scrubbing bugs to create working Trac queries.

6 - Update deployments page. Update releases page and start using new 
semantic format (thanks to S Page for laying out the structure). Also 
update XS sections of releases page.