QA:SOP Blocker Bug Meeting

Background

• Most Fedora events should be self-hosting and capable of being led by non-subject matter experts. This SOP sets forth how to arrange and lead a Blocker Bug Meeting.
• These meetings are a part of the QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process and the QA:SOP_nth_bug_process, and their purpose is to review proposed blocker and nice-to-have bugs and decide whether to accept them, and to monitor the progress of fixing existing accepted blocker and nice-to-have bugs.
• Proactive review and handling of blocker bug lists is the one of the best ways to make sure our releases ship as closely on time as possible.
• Blocker Bug Meetings are not owned by any one team in Fedora. They are a collaborative effort between Release Engineering, Quality Assurance, Development, and Project Management.

Meeting Setup

Announcement

Announce the Blocker Bug Meeting. Include the following important information in the announcement:

• Meeting time in the format: 16:00 UTC (12:00 EDT, 17:00 CET). To help participants convert UTC to their local time, the following text can be used.

  To convert UTC to your local time, take a look at
    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/UTCHowto
  or run:
    date -d '2010-03-19 16:00 UTC'

• Place: #fedora-bugzappers on irc.freenode.net
• Link to blocker tracker bug to be reviewed (send tree display version)
• Link to nice-to-have tracker. Note, the nice-to-have tracker list always includes the blocker trackers. For example, https://bugzilla.redhat.com/showdependencytree.cgi?id=F40-accepted&hide_resolved=1
• List of bugs to be reviewed. A simple way to obtain this list by supplying the tracker bug number is:

  bugzilla query --blocked=611991 \
     --bug_status=NEW,ASSIGNED,ON_DEV,MODIFIED,POST,ON_QA,FAILS_QA,PASSES_QA,REOPENED,VERIFIED,RELEASE_PENDING \
     --outputformat="%{bug_id} :: %{bug_status} :: %{component} :: %{assigned_to} :: %{summary} :: %{url}"

• Link to the apropriate Fedora Release Criteria (e.g. Alpha, Beta or Final) to guide decision making during the meeting

Reminders

• Two days before the meeting, send reminder to test-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org. Both the devel and [test mailing lists are subscribed to test-announce, so no additional announcements are needed.

Requesting Status Before The Meeting

The meeting is most productive when we have the latest information to work with. Often this requires specifically requesting more information in the bug. Review each of the open blocker bugs and review the comments to see if the bug is progressing.

If the bug does not appear to be making progress, request more information. Here are some examples text that might help solicit information:

• Set the bug to needinfo-assignee ...

  Please help us save time at this week's Fedora 15 Alpha Blocker Bug review
  meeting by adding your comments on the assessment of this bug.  If this bug is
  still unresolved by Friday, July 23, 2010, we would appreciate your attendance
  at the Fedora 15 Alpha blocker meeting on freenode in the #fedora-bugzappers
  channel at 16:00 UTC.
  
  The following information would be very helpful to have prior to Friday:
  a) whether you believe it is truly a blocker bug
  b) what additional information you need to troubleshoot or fix this bug
  c) When you estimate having a fix ready
  
  Thank you,
  your name
  

• Set the bug to needinfo-reporter

  Dear Bug Reporter,
  
  This blocker bug has been marked as fixed.  If possible could you verify that
  this problem is in fact fixed in the latest build?  Your help in completing
  this task and adding a comment to this bug prior to the next Fedora 15 Alpha
  Blocker meeting on Friday, July 23, 2010, would be most appreciated.
  
  Thank you,
  your name
  

In Action

1. The meeting leader should start the meeting using the following meeting functions:
   • #startmeeting FXX-blocker-review
   • #meetingname FXX-blocker-review
   • #topic Introduction
2. The meeting leader should provide the following information at the start of the meeting:
   1. The bug list s/he will be working from
      • #link http://bugzilla.redhat.com/...
   2. This page, reminder attendees the purpose and scope of the meeting
      • #link https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_Blocker_Bug_Meeting
3. The meeting leader should find someone who is willing to act as a bug secretary, making changes to bugs in Bugzilla as necessary. This role can be shared around during the meeting if desired.

Next, proceed through the list of bugs. Address blocker bugs first. Address nice-to-have bugs after the blocker bugs, if time / motivation remain. For each bug ...

1. The meeting leader then sets the meeting topic to each bug on the list in turn
   • #topic https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=123456
2. The group then agrees whether the bug is still accepted as a blocker; if not, whether it is downgraded to target or dropped from the list entirely. This decision should be based on the Release Criteria for the release in question
   • Use plenty of #info ... tags to record additional notes on the bug
   • After discussion, the leader will seek feedback on a proposed action proposed #agreed 123456 - accepted|rejected as a release blocker
3. The group then considers the status of work on fixing each blocker bug. It should be clear who currently has responsibility for each blocker bug and what the next required action is on each bug
   • #action tester - Will attempt to reproduce the issue reported in 123456
   • #action developer - Expects to have a patch available for testing later today
4. The meeting leader should summarize the discussion with #agreed and #info before moving on to the next bug. If specific action beyond the immediate update of the bug report is needed, it should be noted with a #action item before moving on.
   • #agreed 123456 - accepted|rejected as a release blocker
5. Lastly, as directed in the QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process, the bug secretary should update the bug report comments and whiteboard fields as appropriate
   • Summarize the meeting discussion in a new comment (see suggested stock responses for removing blocker status and downgrading to Target).
   • If the bug is agreed to be a blocker, add the text AcceptedBlocker (with that exact spelling and case) to the Whiteboard field
   • If the bug is agreed to not be a blocker, add the text RejectedBlocker (with that exact spelling and case) to the Whiteboard field

Need more time?
Sometimes it is difficult to reach consensus on whether a bug should block a particular milestone. Given that there may be many bugs to review, it is recommended that no more than 5 minutes be spent reviewing a bug. If additional time is needed, note who has the action items to follow-up on the issue after the meeting, and move on to the next bug in the list.

Tear Down

Finally, after the list of bugs has been reviewed, identify who is responsible for the #Tear_Down process. Typically, this is the meeting leader's responsibility, but it doesn't hurt to clearly identify who will be

1. Confirm the next meeting time and date
   • #info Next meeting time - XX:XX UTC on $date
2. Thank participants, and close the meeting
   • #endmeeting
3. Send a summary of the meeting's findings and action items to test-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org. As part of the email include information about the date and time of the next meeting.