2024-04-29 BTR Meeting Minutes
- Jorge Londoño
- Kyle McCormick
Date
Apr 29, 2024
Participants
@Jorge Londoño
@Kyle McCormick
@Donato Bracuto
@Sarina Canelake
@Chris Patti
@Adolfo Brandes
@Maksim Sokolskiy
@Maria Grimaldi
@Moisés González
@Dawoud Sheraz
🎥 Recording
🤖 AI-Generated Meeting Summary (Unedited)
Quick recap
The team discussed the upcoming release date, the need for preparation, and the challenges of coordinating across different time zones. They also explored potential improvements to the documentation process, with a focus on tracking and documenting changes more efficiently. Lastly, they deliberated on new features and processes, including the Code jail sandbox and the decision between feature flags or waffle flags for plugins
Next steps
Max will start working in the tutor environment and tutor plugins this week to get the testing process started as soon as possible.
Peter will make a post to kick off the testing process and include the testing spreadsheet.
Christopher and Kyle will collaborate offline to improve the current release notes process.
Summary
Preparing Upcoming Release and API Rework
Jorge led a discussion regarding the upcoming release date and the need for preparation. He highlighted the importance of identifying risks and concerns in each role and asked for any calls for help. Adolfo reported on the rework of the API for sidebar navigation and the decision to push the plugin aspect to Sumac. Jorge also proposed a weekly follow-up meeting throughout the four-week completion period to ensure alignment and address any potential risks.
Preparing Upcoming Release and Load Times
Max, Adolfo, Syed, and Jenna discussed the preparation for the upcoming release. Max and Syed planned to initiate work on the computer environment, while Adolfo noted that while their internal sandbox may not include all plugins, they had a deployment script. Adolfo also mentioned that most features would be functional by the cut-off date, and more data was expected to be available by the end of the week to aid decision-making. Jenna raised concerns about the potential impact of load times on testing courses and proposed options for enabling Mfes, which Max agreed to explore further with his team.
Coordinating Testing Across Time Zones
The team discussed the challenges of coordinating across different time zones and involving the product team in the testing process. They decided to adopt the testing plan from the Quince release, with a focus on incorporating new features and removing deprecated elements. The team also agreed to involve six volunteers from the product group in test selection and documentation. The upcoming release was discussed, with an emphasis on the functionality of the dashboards and release documentation. Sarina's proposal for two separate release notes was generally well-received, with the aim of streamlining the documentation process.
Improving Change Tracking and Documentation
Sarina, Christopher, and Kyle discussed the challenges of tracking and documenting changes for their project. They agreed that the current system of manually compiling release notes was inefficient and overwhelming, and suggested potential improvements. Christopher proposed using a tool called Dinghy to extract commit information, while Kyle suggested developers could write their changes in a Wiki page. They decided to discuss these ideas further offline, with the aim of finding a more efficient solution. Sarina also suggested the possibility of collaborating on groups of commits to simplify the process.
BTR Board Issues and Release Process Updates
Maria discussed her efforts to resolve long-standing issues on the BTR board with the Maintenance working group and proposed a weekly follow-up to ensure issues are being addressed. Jorge suggested establishing initial guidelines for release blockers before the testing process for the Redwood release. The team agreed on several action items, including reaching out to Maria about her upcoming work scope, notifying the final cut-off date in all community channels, and initiating the testing process for the tutor environment and plugins. Max was assigned to work on the tutor environment, while Peter was tasked with testing and coordinating release notes. Chris was to maintain discussion coordination, and Kyle announced changes to the release process.
Code Jail Sandbox and Release Management
Kyle proposed a new feature, the Code jail sandbox, which would allow users to run older versions of code in a separate environment before updating to new versions. He also suggested a process for release management, including copying the sandbox-based requirements file to a new file for each release. Max agreed to update the process document, which described the old translation system before Atlas was added. The team also planned to resume weekly meetings the following Monday to follow up on the discussed points. Additionally, Adolfo asked the team to consider whether they preferred feature flags or waffle flags for plugins, and to be ready to discuss the consequences of this decision after Redwood.
Discussion topics
Time | Item | Presenter | Notes | Action Items |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter
| @Jorge Londoño |
|
|
| Cut-off, testing process, and release planning
| @Jorge Londoño |
|
|
| Release process changes
| @Kyle McCormick |
|
|
Decisions
We agreed on changing the frequency of the BTR meetup from bi-weekly to weekly until Redwood is released on 10/06.