Board public IRC meeting, 29 March, 2011

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 12:44:24PM -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:28:42AM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 04:19:51PM -0400, Jaroslav Reznik wrote:
> > > * jjmcd_ wanted to thank jsmith for mentioning the beats.  We get much higher quality prose when those the most familiar with the feature explan them
> > > ** jds2001 asked if it is not a requirement that feature owners write up release notes for their features
> > > ** jjmcd_ aswered yes, that is the expectation, but those relnotes are often omitted or not much more than a placeholder and we have lots changes that aren't features
> > > ** rbergeron said she spot for release notes in the feature pages is often filled with one line of very, very basic information
> > > ** jreznik said that sometimes it's not easy to write release notes before you have anything in hands and then...
> > > ** rbergeron noted that this will likely be part of looking at doing feature process overhaul
> > 
> > Should this be part of determining that a feature is feature-complete
> > at the Alpha freeze?
> > 
> How's the docs team schedule match up with Alpha freeze?

I inadvertently mixed up "feature complete at Alpha freeze" with
"accepted by the feature freeze."

Above, it's noted that the feature page template includes release
notes for features.  Currently a reasonably complete feature page is
required for feature acceptance.  Feature acceptance happens by the
feature freeze one week before Alpha.  By the Alpha change deadline,
features are supposed to be feature complete -- testable but not
necessarily finished, nor bug-free.

What I was asking was whether release notes, which are in that feature
page, should be used in the acceptance process.  I wouldn't expect the
release notes to be perfect, since it's possible for code to change up
to the Beta change deadline in ways that might change those notes.
Just something substantial.

Or perhaps if that's not considered important for the feature
acceptance, it should be checked before some other deadline, perhaps
related to the Docs cycle so that they get the content needed.  This
would help ensure the content they produce is substantial, meaningful,
and well-informed by the developers themselves.


-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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