[Koha-devel] Release Manager 3.6

[Paul Poulain]

Le 12/05/2011 14:41, Bob Birchall a écrit :
> My thinking is influenced by the knowledge that the patches Biblibre
> seeks to incorporate have been tested and accepted by customers and
> are operating features in regular use.  The main issue (I guess) is
> the passage of time since they were re-based against Master.  (Forgive
> me if that is not technically correct - I think its close in principal?)
You're technically correct.
> How about this approach:
> - we designate a very small number of companies with the capacity and
> track record of major feature integration, as being authorised to
> short cut community QA before integrating major features (only);
Sounds a good idea/necessity according to me. Of course, features should
not be merged "from nowhere" and clearly/proudly announced. Any feature
that sounds a problem to the community should not be merged either (for
example, BibLibre wouldn't merge his solR stuff without agreement from a
functionnal point of view. I don't mean a sign-off, because I'm "sure"
no-one would be able tosign-off.

I see something very interesting with this option : we could have a
"sandbox" where librarians/anyone could test a freshly merged feature.
I'm sure that would increase the number of tester & bug reporters.
> - minor features and bug fixes remain subject to the existing work flow;
the question being "what is minor" ? but maybe the monthly meeting can
be the place to discuss all the features and decide which is "minor" and
which is not ;-)
> - I'm thinking ByWater, Biblibre and Catalyst at this stage - others
> can argue their own case;
sounds a good list ( except it's BibLibre, not Biblibre :D )
> - such features must be integrated at least two months before a
> scheduled release, and assistance provided to community members to
> perform testing;
mmm... I feel 2 months may be too close to the release for major
changes. I think 4 months is better. (see my proposal tomorrow: 2 months
"quick features", 2 months "strong QA features" and 2 months "feature
freeze", roughly.
> - if significant problems are detected that are not rectified n weeks
> (2?) before release date, the feature will be withdrawn.
Yep. But I can promize that BibLibre will rectify any problems
immediatly, as it will be the version we will release to our customers !
that's our business responsability !!!
> I'm sorry if this is naive.  I hope it may help the discussion along.
This is not naive, this is a very good proposition to be agile again !

-- 
Paul POULAIN
http://www.biblibre.com
Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc
Tel : (33) 4 91 81 35 08