2024-04-29 BTR Meeting Minutes

 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

Time

Item

Presenter

Notes

Action Items

 

Newsletter

@Jorge Londoño

 

 

 

Cut-off, testing process, and release planning

  • BTR chair - @Jorge Londoño

    • Preparation work for cut-off

      • Notifying the final cut-off date in all Community channels

      • Prioritizing and processing identified risks and calls for help

      • Kicking off the asynchronous retrospective for Redwood

    • Risks and concerns for the release date

      • Is a month enough to complete the testing process including bug fixing?

      • Given the 4-week window to get all the work done, should we schedule a weekly follow-up session once the testing process starts?

    • Call for help

      •  

  • Release manager - @Maksim Sokolskiy

    • Preparation work for cut-off

    • Risks and concerns for the release date

      • We should start to work on the Tutor environment and Tutor plugins this week

    • Call for help

  • Testing coordinator - @Peter Pinch @Dean Jay Mathew

    • Preparation work for cut-off

    • Risks and concerns

      • Coordination between Peter and Dean who are in two very different time zones

      • Coordination with the Product WG. You can follow the discussion here

    • Call for help

  • Release documentation expert - @Chris Patti

    • Preparation work for cut-off

    • Risks and concerns

      • Apart from waiting for the product features documentation to be ready, there are no major concerns.

    • Call for help

  • Bug triagers - @Maria Grimaldi @Donato Bracuto @Ghassan

    • Preparation work for cut-off

    • Risks and concerns

    • Call for help

  • Security patcher - @Maga Jaimes

    • Preparation work for cut-off

    • Risks and concerns

    • Call for help

@Jorge Londoño

  • @Sarina Canelake proposes to keep both release notes, the ones from product and the ones from the BTR WG more focused to the operator role, separated. She suggests that @Chris Patti mention the product release notes in the operator ones and redirect people from there. @Sarina Canelake and @Kyle McCormick offered their help to move this forward.

  • @Jorge Londoño will notify the final cut-off date in all Community channels

  • @Maksim Sokolskiy will start to work on the Tutor environment and Tutor plugins this week to get the testing process started as soon as possible.

  • @Peter Pinch will make a post to kick off the testing process.

  • @Chris Patti, @Kyle McCormick, and @Sarina Canelake will keep the discussion and coordination async to plan and align the release notes effort.

 

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.