[sakai2-tcc] [Building Sakai] [Management] Sakai 2.8 Release Activity Schedule

[csev]

Alan B,

I really don't think this will be much of a problem at all and it is perfectly correct for the S3 folks to be managing the hybrid progress in terms of overall timing, QA, etc.

We don't need to go into the S3 timescales in great detail here unless something in S3 wants a change in the 2.x schedule - like delaying 2.8 freeze for a few months to meet a S3 goal (which has not been proposed - just as an example).

Lance has done a great job expressing to the 2.x community what he needs and he uses 2.x words to express it - we in the 2.x community can keep our world relatively simple and focus on 2.x.   Lance has his feet both places and aligns things to fit into 2.x with a minimum of fuss.  You now also have feet in both places.

If during the 2.8 QA period there is some S3 QA testing of hybrid mode that identifies needed changes to the S2 hybrid bits and we are still making changes to 2.8 in general - Lance will make those changes/fix those bugs and things will work perfectly.   If issues are identified in S3's testing after 2.8 is released - then it can go into trunk and 2-8-x and later 2.8.1, etc releases.

The BasicLTI provider in 2.7 gave us a perfect example of how well this can work with a minimum of fuss.  I wrote the first version mostly as a turned off demo in 2.7.  Lance got interested as part of his hybrid mode strategy and started pushing it forward.  Since it was turned off in 2.7 - we gave Lance a lot of leeway in what he did to the provider and when he did it.  And that worked really well both during the release prep and in the 2-7-x branch after release.

The key to this is the beautiful "off by default" exemption which we should not abuse - but it applies perfectly to this case.  It avoids having hard alignment points when there is really no need to have hard alignment points.

/Chuck

On Sep 2, 2010, at 3:02 AM, Berg, Alan wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Firstly i recognise that the TCC is responsible for shepherding  2.X  and Hybrid mode is instigated in the Sakai 3 project structure, however qua technology it has feet in both 2 and 3. . I think you read the situation correctly qua impact for 2.8, the functionality is turned off by default.  Qua impact for central  testing resources we have to look at the wider picture of the timeline of the hybrid mode and bug fixing in three places Saka 2.x, Sakai 3 and directly by Lance with the gluing. I discussed this with Lance yesterday and promised to send an email to the TCC and Alan Marks, but you beat me to the punch. 
> 
> There are two versions of hybrid promised Basic and Complete. The complete version has not been documented qua functionality but needs to be ready at the end of Q2 of the Sakai 3 project plan by June 2011.
> 
> The rough timeline for testing should look similar to: Sakai 2.8 goes from alpha to beta. Hybrid mode is tested against the beta and  bugs are pushed back to Sakai 2.x and Sakai 3 and the responsible party for the glue. The cycle is kept in check with the 2 week tagging cycle of the beta's. Testing needs to include functional testing, security, UI consistency, performance. Central QA needs to know what the landing time for the complete mode and actuate the cycle again. The testing resources need to be found from the community. I would expect those testers to come for the Sakai 3 project, but that is not clear as we have a general lack of resources. The bug fixes for at least the basic mode will need to be in step with the release of 2.8. Bug fixes associated with UI consistency may need to be negotiated as they have no immediate value for 2..8 or Sakai 3. The impact for Lance is that he will need good test plans for the full hybrid functionality and no doubt he will need to be quick with his programming fingers.
> 
> Alan