I’d like to put forward a motion for removal of the guideline that one company shouldn’t sign-off on the same company's patches within the community.
I think this is a good rule, and I think our current process has proved that by showing that with many different points of view looking at the code more issues can be found which need to be addressed before something is ready. I realize how frustrating it is to have something big and hard to test languish in the QA process, but I think the right solution might be to get more creative about how to help things move along.
From my perspective as a bug tester the biggest thing I can say about it is to have good test plans. I mean really really good test plans. List, explicitly, every possible step that the tester could take to test the patch.
The obvious example here is Bug 6427 - Rewrite of the accounts system (http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6427). A big patch that touches a LOT of files and involves one of the most mission-critical aspects of Koha's circulation functionality. Pushing it before it was properly tested could be disastrous for libraries who collect fines throughout the day. The bug has a pretty good test plan, but is that enough? What else could we do to make sure it's ready for production? Perhaps set up a dedicated test instance with some good sample data, give out logins which give permission to circulate and collect fines, assign multiple days' worth of tests to be performed by multiple testers? Getting volunteer testers is hard, and getting multiple volunteer testers is harder, but sometimes I think we need to take a more active hand in soliciting and promoting testing. -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org