[Qgis-psc] Request for appointing a formal release "traffic controller" role

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

Great idea! I always hoped that QGIS.org would eventually form a group of paid contributors who keep all the machinery of the project running - eventually building up to having full time paid employees doing a lot of the grunt work for the project so that volunteers can do the ‘fun’ stuff. Many other open source projects have followed this route with success. See for example how KDE recently recruited a marketing person: https://ev.kde.org/resources/marketingsupport-callforproposals-2020.pdf

Also maybe if the candidates that Nyall suggests are a bit busy this work could be split between them e.g. on a rotational basis.

Regards

Tim



> On 5 Jun 2020, at 22:43, Nyall Dawson <nyall.dawson at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi PSC,
> 
> I'd like to raise the notion that qgis.org appoint a formal position
> for a release "traffic controller". This role would be responsible
> for:
> 
> 1. Making the final call on what is suitable for backporting to stable releases
> 2. Guide formal policy regarding the different stages in the lifetime
> of an LTR release, and develop written guidelines on what is
> acceptable to backport at different patch releases for an LTR
> 3. Make the final call on feature freeze exemptions during a
> pre-release freeze period.
> 
> Some clarifications:
> - This role would be distinct from the release manager position, which
> is currently responsible for making QGIS releases, release packaging
> and release cycles. This would be a time-intensive role, and I don't
> think it should be added to the already (time-intensive) duties of the
> release manager position.
> - It would be a highly technical, very hands-on role, requiring
> **daily/bi-daily** monitoring of the pull request queue and issue
> tracker and full knowledge across all different parts of the QGIS
> codebase and the interplay between them (and the risks associated with
> changes). It is NOT a "project manager for QGIS" type role!
> - It would be a formal community role appointed by PSC, not a position
> on the PSC/board itself
> 
> I'm raising this now after reflecting on the recent informal practice
> that Matthias Kuhn and I have been trialling where non-crash,
> non-data-corruption, non-trivial fixes get put into a "time delay"
> before being allowed to included in an LTR patch release. (see
> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/36718,
> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/36812). By doing this, we ensure
> that these fixes have exposure in a standard (non LTR) release for at
> least one month before they get included in the LTR release. The
> intention is to dramatically reduce the risk of regressions being
> introduced in the middle of an LTR release. (When this happens, it
> undermines user/enterprise confidence in the LTR process and reflects
> poorly on QGIS). This is a completely informal policy we developed and
> wanted to trial, and while I totally stand behind it and think it's a
> great way approach it makes me nervous that Matthias and I have
> basically just forced this policy ourselves. See
> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/36718#issuecomment-639428003 for
> discussion on this whether this policy is acceptable or not.
> 
> IMO, suitable candidates would be developers with extensive experience
> across a whole range of areas of the QGIS code, and demonstrated
> history of timely reviews and responses to comments on github. I would
> suggest that suitable candidates, (based on activity on github over
> the past 12+ months and commits ranging across all areas of QGIS) are:
> - Matthias
> - Alessandro
> - Denis
> - (myself)
> 
> Thanks for your consideration!
> Nyall
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—










Tim Sutton

Co-founder: Kartoza
Ex Project chair: QGIS.org

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