PTLs, As we did for the Mitaka and Newton cycles, I want to start this cycle by making sure the expectations for communications with the release team are clear to everyone so there is no confusion or miscommunication about any of the process or deadlines. This email is being sent to the openstack-dev mailing list as well as the PTLs of all official OpenStack projects individually, to improve the odds that all of the PTLs see it. I will not be taking the extra step of CCing individual PTLs or liaisons for future emails.
(If you were a PTL last cycle, you may want to skip ahead to the Things for you to do right now section at the end.) Volunteers filling PTL and liaison positions are responsible for ensuring communication between project teams happens smoothly. As a community, we rely on three primary communication strategies/tools for different purposes: 1. Email, for announcements and for asynchronous communication. We will be using the "[release]" topic tag on the openstack-dev mailing list for important messages related to release management. Besides special announcements and instructions, I will send the countdown emails I sent last cycle, with weekly updates on focus, tasks, and upcoming dates. PTLs and release liaisons should configure your mailing list subscription and email client to ensure that those messages are visible (and then read them) so that you are aware of all deadlines, process changes, etc. 2. IRC, for time-sensitive interactions. There are far too many of you (56) to make it realistic for the three members of the release team to track you down individually when there is a deadline. We need you to do your part by making yourself available by configuring your IRC bouncer to listen in #openstack-release. You are, of course, welcome to stay in channel all the time, but you need to be there at least during deadline periods (the week before and week of each deadline). 3. Written documentation, for relatively stable information. The release team has published the schedule for the Ocata cycle to http://releases.openstack.org/ocata/schedule.html. Although I will highlight dates in the countdown emails, you may want to add important dates from the schedule to your calendar. Some projects have also added their own project-specific deadlines to that list. If you have something unique, please feel free to update it by patching the openstack/releases repository. There is no need to add a project-specific deadline that is the same as the global deadline. The Ocata cycle overlaps with several major holidays, including the new year. If you are planning time off, please make sure your duties are being covered by someone else on the team. Its best to let the release team know in advance so we dont delay approval for release requests from someone we dont recognize, waiting for your +1. Please ensure that the release liaison for your project has the time and ability to handle the communication necessary to manage your release. The release team is here to facilitate, but finishing the work of preparing the release is ultimately the responsibility of the project team. Failing to follow through on a needed process step may block you from successfully meeting deadlines or releasing. Our release milestones and deadlines are date-based, not feature-based. When the date passes, so does the milestone. If you miss it, you miss it. A few of you ran into problems in past cycles because of missed communications. My goal is to have all teams meet all deadlines during Ocata. We came very very close for Newton; please help by keeping up to date on deadlines. Things for you to do right now: 1. Update your cross-project liaison on https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/CrossProjectLiaisons#Release_management 2. Make sure your IRC nickname and email address listed in http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/governance/tree/reference/projects.yaml are correct. The release team, foundation staff, and TC all use those contact details to try to reach you at important points during the cycle. Please make sure they are correct, and that the email address delivers messages to a mailbox you check regularly. 3. Update your mail filters to ensure you see messages sent to the openstack-dev list with [release] in the subject line. 4. Reply to this message, off-list, so I know that you have received it. A simple “ack” is enough. Doug PS - If you need help setting up an IRC bouncer, take a look at https://doughellmann.com/blog/2015/03/12/deploying-nested-znc-services-with-ansible/ or https://dague.net/2014/09/13/my-irc-proxy-setup/ for a puppet version. __________________________________________________________________________ OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions) Unsubscribe: openstack-dev-requ...@lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
