Open Stack

PTLs,

As we did for the Mitaka cycle, I want to start this cycle by making
sure the expectations for communications with the release team are
clear to everyone so there is no confusion or miscommunication about
any of the process or deadlines for Newton. This email is being
sent to the openstack-dev mailing list as well as the PTLs of all
official OpenStack projects individually, to improve the odds that
all of the PTLs see it.  I will not be taking the extra step of
CCing individual PTLs or liaisons for future emails. (In fact, the
first version of the email didn't go to the list because it had too
many CC addresses on it.)

Volunteers filling PTL and liaison positions are responsible for
ensuring communication between project teams happens smoothly. As
a community, we rely on three primary communication strategies/tools
for different purposes:

1. Email, for announcements and for asynchronous communication.

  We will be using the "[release]" topic tag on the openstack-dev
  mailing list for important messages related to release management.
  Besides special announcements, instructions, and library release
  announcements I will send the countdown emails I sent last cycle,
  with weekly updates on focus, tasks, and upcoming dates. PTLs
  and release liaisons should configure your mailing list subscription
  and email client to ensure that those messages are visible (and
  then read them) so that you are aware of all deadlines, process
  changes, etc.

2. IRC, for time-sensitive interactions.

  There are far too many of you (53) to make it realistic for the
  three members of the release team to track you down individually
  when there is a deadline. We need you to do your part by making
  yourself available by configuring your IRC bouncer to listen in
  #openstack-release. You are, of course, welcome to stay in channel
  all the time, but you need to be there at least during deadline
  periods (the week before and week of each deadline).

3. Written documentation, for relatively stable information.

  The release team has published the schedule for the Newton cycle
  to http://releases.openstack.org/newton/schedule.html. Although
  I will highlight dates in the countdown emails, you may want to
  add important dates from the schedule to your calendar.

  Some projects have also added their own project-specific deadlines
  to that list. If you have something unique, please feel free to
  update it by patching the openstack/releases repository. There
  is no need to add a project-specific deadline that is the same
  as the global deadline.

  We will also be working on more formal release process documentation
  this cycle. We will share more details when that work starts.


Please ensure that the release liaison for your project has the
time and ability to handle the communication necessary to manage
your release.  The release team is here to facilitate, but finishing
the work of preparing the release is ultimately the responsibility
of the project team. Failing to follow through on a needed process
step may block you from successfully meeting deadlines or releasing.
Our release milestones and deadlines are date-based, not feature-based.
When the date passes, so does the milestone. If you miss it, you
miss it. A few of you ran into problems during Mitaka because of
missed communications. My goal is to have all teams meet all deadlines
during Newton. Please help ensure that by keeping up to date.

Doug

PS - If you need help setting up an IRC bouncer, take a look at
https://doughellmann.com/blog/2015/03/12/deploying-nested-znc-services-with-ansible/
or https://dague.net/2014/09/13/my-irc-proxy-setup/ for a puppet
version.