2021-07-22 DSpace 7 Working Group Meeting

Date

15 Jul 2021 from 14:00-15:00 UTC

Location: https://lyrasis.zoom.us/my/dspace (Meeting ID: 502 527 3040).  Passcode: dspace

• More connection options available at DSpace Meeting Room

Agenda

• (30 mins) General Discussion Topics
  
  1. Finalizing the 7.0 Release
     1. When are we cutting the release? Set an exact date
     2. When are we announcing the release? Set an exact date
  2. Documentation tickets could use attention prior to 7.0 (or just after). At a minimum, we should try to link off to resources where they exist, so that early adopters of DSpace can find instructions/guides/workshops on various DSpace 7 features more easily.
  3. Beginning to discuss/review the 7.1 Board
  4. (Other Topics?)
• (30 mins) Planning for next week
  • Review the Backlog Board - Are there any tickets here stuck in the "Triage" column?  We'd like to keep this column as small as possible.
  • Review the 7.0 Project Board - Assign tickets to developers & assign PRs to reviewers.
    • Priority should be kept in mind here. If new "high" or "medium" priority tickets come in, developers should move effort off of "low" priority tasks.  Reviewers/testers should also concentrate effort on "high" or "medium" priority PRs.
• On Hold Topics
  • Discussing Release Numbering for 7.x
    1. Should we potentially have subminor (e.g. 7.0.1) releases to fix major bugs or security issues?  Or would those need to wait for the next minor (e.g. 7.1) release?
    2. Considering regular, scheduled releases instead of feature-based releases?
       1. Every two months quarter (3 months) release a new 7.x.  Features will be implemented in priority order, but not necessarily guaranteed for a specific release. 
  • Discussing Release Support after 7.0
    1. The DSpace Software Support Policy notes that we support the "most recent three (3) major releases" (where a major release is defined by the changing of the first number, e.g. 6.x → 7.x).  This would mean that 5.x, 6.x and 7.x are all supported once 7.0 is released.
    2. Should we propose to Committers / Governance a change of policy to the "most recent two (2) major releases"?  This would mean that we move to only supporting 6.x and 7.x.

Attendees

• Art Lowel (Atmire) 

• Andrea Bollini (4Science)

• Tim Donohue

• Lieven Droogmans

• Giuseppe Digilio (4Science)
• Ben Bosman
• Paulo Graça
• Mark H. Wood 

7.0 Release Goals

These resources define the prioritization and general schedule we are working towards

• DSpace 7 Release Goals : overview of goals/timelines & beta release process
• DSpace 7 Project Boards : our planning/scheduled boards which details which features are scheduled for each Beta release.

Current Work

Project Board

DSpace 7.0 Final Project Board: https://github.com/orgs/DSpace/projects/5

To quickly find PRs assigned to you for review, visit https://github.com/pulls/review-requested  (This is also available in the GitHub header under "Pull Requests → Review Requests")

Issue Triage process

• Overview of our 7.0 Triage process:
  1. Initial Analysis:  Tim Donohue will do a quick analysis of all issue tickets coming into our Backlog Board (this is where newly reported issues will automatically appear).
  2. Prioritization/Assignment: If the ticket should be considered for 7.0, Tim Donohue will categorize/label it (high/medium/low priority) and immediately assign to a developer to further analysis. Assignment will be based on who worked on that feature in the past.
     1. "high priority" label = A required 7.0 feature is badly broken or not working. These tickets are considered "blocking" and must be resolved prior to 7.0 final.
     2. "medium priority" label = A required 7.0 feature is difficult to use, but mostly works. These tickets should be resolved prior to 7.0 final (but the 7.0 release will not be delayed to fix these issues).
     3. "low priority" label = A required 7.0 feature has usability issues or other smaller inconveniences or a non-required feature is not working as expected.  These tickets are simply "nice to have" in 7.0 final.  We'll attempt to fix them as time allows, but no guarantees are made.
  3. Detailed Analysis: Developers should immediately analyze assigned tickets and respond back within 1-2 days. The developer is expected to respond to Tim Donohue with the following:
     1. Is the bug reproducible?  (If the developer did not understand the bug report they may respond saying they need more information to proceed.)
     2. Does the developer agree with the initial prioritization (high/medium/low), or do they recommend another priority?
     3. Does the bug appear to be on the frontend/UI or backend/REST API?
     4. Does the developer have an idea of how difficult it would be to fix? Either a rough estimate, or feel free to create an immediate PR (if the bug is tiny & you have time to do so).
     5. Are you (or your team) interested in being assigned this work?
  4. Final Analysis: Tim Donohue will look at the feedback from the developer, fix ticket labels & move it to the appropriate work Board.  If it is moved to the 7.0 Project Board, then the ticket may be immediately assigned back to the developer (if they expressed an interest) to begin working on it.
     1. If the ticket needs more info, Tim Donohue will send it back to the reporter and/or attempt to reproduce the bug himself.  Once more info is provided, it may be sent back to the developer for a new "Detailed Analysis".

Security / Performance Tests

Brainstorming options for security testing & performance testing.  How do we want to handle both of these prior to 7.0 final?

1. Security Review/Scanning of pre-7.0:  See DSpace 7 Security Analysis 
2. Performance testing of pre-7.0: See DSpace 7 Performance Analysis

Notes