[Twg] Managing code history and test collateral

[Peter Bojanic]

Andreas, Chris,

I acknowledge the challenge associated with widely distributed "snippets" of technical documentation.  A solid body of knowledge associated with code changes (features and bug fixes) will be increasingly important with diverse parties contributing to Lustre.

At Xyratex we're weaving a lot of process around Google Docs, which enables us to have shared tables and forms (leveraging spreadsheets extensively) that can be updated and maintained as workflow progresses. Nothing (Jira, Bugzilla, etc.) is quite as flexible as Google docs and there's robust change tracking as well as (new) issue discussion/resolution features that have just shown up in the Enterprise edition.

We track development items as they progress through stages of our process (based on TSP) so everyone knows exactly what steps we have completed and what is left to do. Our control tables accommodate linking to other documents (requirements, test plans, high level designs, etc.) so you've got a complete inventory of the associated artefacts. I know that many of us (OpenSFS, probably WhamCloud) are using Google Docs already and you're probably doing something similar.

I would highly recommend that the TWG craft process that enables our respective organizations to use our own internal quality development processes yet ties it all together into a common framework for advancing contributions to canonical code base.

I'd be happy to contribute to such an effort.

Cheers,
Bojanic

On May 5, 2011, at 13:54 , Andreas Dilger wrote:

>> From: Chris Gearing <chris at whamcloud.com>
>> 
>> The greatest problem facing the code acceptance process for Lustre is establishing the complete history of the code being submitted. To fully establish the history the code development process must be documented from conception thru landing.  This documentation which will form part of the landing collateral will include at least the requirements specification, the design document, test specification/plan, results of testing, the code itself and for copyright purposes the identity of the owner of the submitted code. A key piece of information that must be present is evidence in the form of failing tests that indicate the tests built are fit for purpose. Results showing the failing tests before code implementation are vital to demonstrate that passing results have value.
>> 
>> As a timeline this collateral can be defined as;
>> 1/ What is the requirement
>> 2/ How will the requirement be met
>> 3/ How will success be measured
>> 4/ Validation that the code does not already meet the requirement
>> 5/ The Code
>> 6/ Validation the code now meets the requirement including general regression testing.
>> 7/ Code ownership information.
>> 
>> The documents can be extensive and detailed for a major project like the health network or updates of a bugtracker for a bug or small improvement, however in all cases each of the 7 collateral points must be covered. Another key requirement of all documents is that they must be free standing in their own right, this means that whilst references to other specifications or documents are obviously acceptable references to 'lustre-devel', 'email-threads' or 'Skype discussions' etc are not. In all cases a lustre capable gatekeeper should have at hand everything to answer the 7 points on the timeline without the need for any historical knowledge of the code change.
>> 
> 
> 
> Cheers, Andreas
> --
> Andreas Dilger 
> Principal Engineer
> Whamcloud, Inc.
> 
> 
> 
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