[development] {Short issue queues need care - 8} The Yellow Team rocks!

Sat Oct 7 14:07:56 UTC 2006

Hello and welcome to the eighth edition of {Short issue queues need care}.

This week:
1} The Yellow Team rocks!
   a) What happened 
   b) The result
2} Featured short issue queues.
3} Why this report and how to cooperate?

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1} The Yellow Team rocks!
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My last report is already a month old: I apologize for the delay.

  a) What happened
  ================

Last time, I first pointed to this issue queue:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&states=14
I was saying that the Green Team rocks for finding a way to always keep their 
queue short.

Then I pointed to this one:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&categories=bug&states=8
And I invited the Yellow Team, who is responsible for dealing with it, to do 
its best to review those issues so as to make their queue shorter. 

I posted the 7th edition of {Short issue queues need care} on the 4th of 
September.

And the Yellow Team responded in a way that astounded me: I did not expect the 
Team to mobilize to such an extent. The results were obvious within hours of 
the posting of the report. 

Other people were surprised, too. They are not subscribed to this list, so 
they didn't read the report... but they wondered why all of a sudden, on the 
5th of September, they received so many feedbacks on so many old issues... :) 
(I guess it was kind of freaky, for some....) 

That is why I want to doubly apologize for delaying writing this report, 
because I feel I dropped the ball on this one! :(

The yellow queue above was just over 100 issues long on the 4th of September. 
Within 2 or 3 days, it was under 60 issues, and after a week it was under 
50!!!

Today, it is back to over 100, though. But this is in itself an achievement: I 
noticed a handful of developers from the White Team 
(the team dealing with issues without any patch attached:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&categories=bug&states=1 ) 
submitting scores of patches for review. There has been a strong drive to 
provide long standing bugs with patches. 

So, many issues have shifted back and forth between the White, Red, Yellow, 
Green Teams, and the Yellow Team managed to hold its ground.

Well done!

  b) The result
  ================

The net result?

a) The Green Team is currently a bit overwhelmed and has been all month... ;)
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&states=14
(21 issues, a handful - 4 - being old).

b) The total of ALL open issues has dropped 78 issues, from 2140 issues one 
month ago to 2062 today (down from 2222 issues mid-august!), which proves 
that by focussing on short lists of issues, we avoid feeling discouraged and 
we do achieve something significant.

So, the objective for the Yellow Team is for its queue:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&categories=bug&states=8
to become and remain as short as the Green Team's one:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&states=14
!!

Keep going: select one or two of the 7 queues featured below and show us what 
you can do!

Thanks for reading :)

and more importantly: 

Thanks for contributing what you can to the Community.

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2} Featured short issue queues.
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There are 930 subscribers to this mailing list.
Is it possible that 20-50 of those read this report and decide to work 
together to lower the number of issues on each of the 7 queues featured this 
week?

Pick one list. See at the very end if you wish to officially 'adopt' one 
queue.

The number in parenthesis designs the number of issues 2 weeks old or more 
(i.e. issues most likely forgotten and not being dealt with).

(Queue #1) DRUPAL-4-6 critical issues:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12052,11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 24 (19) issues.
25/06/2006 : 8 (5) issues.
02/07/2006 : 5 (4) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 5 (5) issues.
14/08/2006 : 5 (4) issues.
22/08/2006 : 4 (2) issues.
04/09/2006:  5 (1) issues.
07/10/2006:  5 (4) issues  only.
Those are really critical issues, already fixed in head and 4.7. 
A few junior developers (myself and others) have tried to help out, here, but 
we lack the knowledge to solve them, and the seniority to decide to downgrade 
those issues ('normal' issue, or 'won't fix').
A senior developer is needed to decide the fate of those issues. If they are 
indeed very critical, then a patch is needed soon: can you at least tell how 
they should be fixed.

(Queue #2) DRUPAL-4-7 critical issues:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12050,11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 31 (19) issues.
25/06/2006 : 12 (8) issues.
02/07/2006 : 7 (5) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 19 (13) issues.
14/08/2006 : 7 (0) issues.
22/08/2006 : 7 (0) issues.
04/09/2006:  18 (0) issues.
07/10/2006:  23 (15) issues only!
New critical issues keep coming every week, because 4.7 is the most used 
version. Most are not really critical, though.
(It should get better for Killes when 5.0 comes out).

(Queue #3) HEAD critical bugs: 
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=6487&categories=bug&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 6 (1) issues.
25/06/2006 : 13 (1) issues.
02/07/2006 : 15 (1) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 16 (3) issues.
14/08/2006 : 22 (5) issues.
22/08/2006 : 21 (6) issues.
04/09/2006:  33 (8) issues.
07/10/2006:  18 (0) issues only!
There are signs that people are readying HEAD for the first Beta release...

(Queue #4) DRUPAL-4-6 Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12052,11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 26 (25) issues.
25/06/2006 : 26 (25) issues.
02/07/2006 : 25 (24) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 24 (23) issues.
14/08/2006 : 24 (23) issues.
22/08/2006 : 20 (2) issues.
04/09/2006:  11 (0) issues.
07/10/2006:  8 (8) issues.
They need to be bumped to 'cvs', if the bug still exists in HEAD. 
If the bug hasn't been fixed yet, try to reroll the patch for head, or else 
set as "patch needs work".

(Queue #5) DRUPAL-4-7 Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12050,11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 17 (5) issues.
25/06/2006 : 16 (7) issues.
02/07/2006 : 21 (8) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 15 (11) issues.
14/08/2006 : 15 (4) issues.
22/08/2006 : 12 (5) issues.
04/09/2006:  9 (3) issues.
07/10/2006:  11 (2) issues only.
Make sure to note if the bug has been fixed in HEAD already: it would be silly 
to have a fix in 4.7, to see the bug reappear when 5.0 comes out.

(Queue #6) HEAD Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=6487&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 72 (67) issues.
25/06/2006 : 71 (67) issues.
02/07/2006 : 77 (66) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 72 (59) issues.
14/08/2006 : 88 (59) issues.
22/08/2006 : 81 (57) issues.
04/09/2006:  82 (64) issues.
07/10/2006:  86 (54) issues.
As you see, many issues are old (over 2 weeks old: 64 issues), so we have the 
choice between :
 re-rolling the patch for current head, 
 set as code needs work, 
 or set as already fixed if appropriate.

(Queue #7) Your own list of Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&categories=bug&states=8&participated=your_drupal_user_name
1) Follow the search link above, 
2) In the URL, replace "your_drupal_user_name" with your actual user name.
3) Reload and bookmark the page. 

Those are issues you have already participated in, and you should already know 
the context. Help the person preparing the patch to eventually come up with a 
patch that can be RTBC. 
Obviously, if there are many results to the query, start from those issues you 
are the most familiar with...
If everyone does this, the result will be seen in the queues #4, #5 and #6 
above.

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3} Why this report and how to cooperate?
*******************************************

There are now over 2000 issues in the queue.
The figure sounds daunting: how can a very few volunteer developers deal with 
such a huge amount of bugs?

The point is that we don't need to worry of the whole issue queue, but by 
getting somewhat more organized, the most important of those issues can be 
definitively dealt with. 

To start with, there shouldn't be anything critical within the Drupal project 
issues. Critical bugs must be dealt as a matter of priority. But one can get 
easily discouraged when facing 4 four pages of critical issues. 
The first step is therefore to sort out what is really critical from what is 
not.
Having a shortlist of what is really critical, two or three developers can 
focus on a single issue, helping each other, so that one week later there is 
one really critical issue less. Similarly, 10-12 developers could get rid of 
3-4 critical issues and in a few weeks, the list of critical issues would be 
down to almost nothing (only 1-2 issues caused by a large patch recently 
introduced in head, for example).

If you wish to participate in tackling one of the 7 short issue queues 
featured here, please reply to the list, quoting only the issue you wish to 
'adopt', changing also the subject title of your email to reflect the queue 
you have chosen. 
Hopefully, two or three more developers will reply to you, saying they want to 
help you with the issues in that same queue.

Thank you to all the volunteers for your cooperation.

Blessings,

Augustin.

-- 
http://www.wechange.org/
Because we and the world need to change.

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Intimate Relationships, peace and harmony in the couple.