FESCo: Feature process and release blocker process

[Denniston, Todd A CIV NAVSURFWARCENDIV Crane]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: test-bounces at lists.fedoraproject.org [mailto:test-
> bounces at lists.fedoraproject.org] On Behalf Of Adam Williamson
> Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 22:36
> To: devel at lists.fedoraproject.org; test at lists.fedoraproject.org
> Subject: FESCo: Feature process and release blocker process
> 
<SNIP>
> There have been a few occasions in recent releases in which bugs that
> can essentially be characterized as 'the proposed feature XX is not
> complete' have been marked as release blockers. When these have come
up
> for review as part of the release blocker process -
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_blocker_bug_process - we have
> been
> consistent in not accepting them as blocker bugs.
> 
> Our rationale for this builds from these premises:
> 
> * The release blocker process is designed to ensure a given release or
> pre-release's compliance with the Fedora quality standards, as
codified
> in the release criteria -
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Release_Criteria
> 
> * A feature being incomplete does not necessarily, or even commonly,
> constitute an infringement of these quality standards
> 
> We - QA - would like to formalize this position by writing it into the
> blocker bug process / release criteria (I haven't yet looked at
> precisely where it'd fit best). We feel that it's best to keep the
> release blocker process and the feature process separate.
> 
<SNIP>

<I am pretty much out of the fedora process, but the wording above
leaves me a bit more queasy for using the downstream products.>

I assume you(QA) are at least doing a cursory review to see if it does
"constitute an infringement of these quality standards", so that IF the
feature is still present at the release(a choice of FESCo), then the
quality(a choice of QA) will still be at the level we expect.
i.e. *just* because the bug is on a "feature XX", QA is not just
pitching it back to FESCo, and when final release comes the bug gets
missed (from a QA perspective) because it was part of a feature that
FESCo is accepting.

Just looking for some more clarity on this concept, thanks.