Open Stack

On 1/23/2018 5:22 PM, Chris Dent wrote:
>> if i were to (potentially) oversimplify it, i would agree with this
>> statement:
>> http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/irclogs/%23openstack-tc/%23openstack-tc.2018-01-23.log.html#t2018-01-23T10:12:22 
>>
>>
>> i don't believe a PTL necessarily has to keep the whole state of the
>> project in their head (although they could). ultimately, it's up to the
>> PTL to decide how much they're willing to defer to others.
> 
> I think that is probably how things should be, but I'm not sure it
> is how things always are.
> 
> I expect there's a bit of nova exceptionalism built into this
> analysis and also a bit of bleed between being the PTL and doing
> anything with significant traction in nova when not the PTL: the
> big picture is a big deal and you got gotta be around, a lot.
> 
> But, as I've said many times, the report intentionally represents
> my own interpretations and biases, in hope that someone might
> respond and say a variety of things, including "WRONG!", driving
> forward our dialectic.
> 
> So, thanks for responding. I owe you a cookie or something.

I work long hours because I work long hours, not because I'm a PTL. I've 
always done it regardless of the project or role I'm in. I don't expect 
the next nova PTL to do things the same way.

I accepted long ago that I can't keep all things going on in my head. We 
used to have more full(er) time people working on the project and it was 
easier to have subject matter experts (think sdague, danpb, alaski, 
johnthetubaguy, comstud, jogo) but times change and people move on. New 
people have stepped up too.

I obsess over tracking things as a tool for at least trying to know 
what's going on if I care to dig deep, that's why I've always got lots 
of etherpads with lists, e.g. [1]. As for digging deep on stuff in a 
given release, it depends on what it is, how I think I can help, and 
what I think it's relative priority is to the other stuff I can work on 
or help review in a constructive way. That means I can't focus on all 
the big things, and I don't try to. I hardly reviewed any of the major 
server-side placement stuff this release, as an example.

As John pointed out in the TC discussion, the one thing that has bummed 
me out the most over the years, and has probably gotten progressively 
worse, is I tend to feel a sense of personal responsibility for what 
does, or doesn't, end up getting done in each release and that can weigh 
on me. Everyone wants everything when they want it, and they want you to 
help, and also work on fixing the half-baked features we merged two 
releases ago, plus docs, plus good CI coverage, plus upgrade support, 
plus more features, etc. And when it's not all delivered or we make one 
step forward but find out we're two steps back on something else now, 
that's where it's the most challenging and I at least have to rely on 
the help of others to work through that stuff. But, again, I think I've 
experienced that same thing before being PTL, and in other projects 
outside of OpenStack, so it might just be the nature of the industry 
we're in, or my own personality, etc. In the end it's all a good 
experience and rewarding, especially when you're able to help someone out.

Finally, remember there was a talk about the pros/cons of being a PTL at 
the Boston summit for anyone thinking about running next week [2].

[1] https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/nova-queens-blueprint-status
[2] 
https://www.openstack.org/videos/boston-2017/being-a-project-team-lead-ptl-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

-- 

Thanks,

Matt