Open Stack

PTLs,

As we did for the Mitaka and Newton cycles, 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. 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.

(If you were a PTL last cycle, you may want to skip ahead to the
Things for you to do right now section at the end.)

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 and instructions, 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 (56) 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 Ocata cycle
  to http://releases.openstack.org/ocata/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.

The Ocata cycle overlaps with several major holidays, including
the new year. If you are planning time off, please make sure your
duties are being covered by someone else on the team. Its best to
let the release team know in advance so we dont delay approval
for release requests from someone we dont recognize, waiting for
your +1.

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 in past cycles because of missed communications. My goal
is to have all teams meet all deadlines during Ocata. We came
very very close for Newton; please help by keeping up to date on
deadlines.


Things for you to do right now:

1. Update your cross-project liaison on
   https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/CrossProjectLiaisons#Release_management

2. Make sure your IRC nickname and email address listed in
   http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/governance/tree/reference/projects.yaml
   are correct. The release team, foundation staff, and TC all
   use those contact details to try to reach you at important
   points during the cycle.  Please make sure they are correct,
   and that the email address delivers messages to a mailbox you
   check regularly.

3. Update your mail filters to ensure you see messages sent to
   the openstack-dev list with [release] in the subject line.

4. Reply to this message, off-list, so I know that you have received it.
   A simple “ack” is enough.

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.