LTS and release methodology

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 04:54:46PM +0300, Peteris Krisjanis wrote:
> > This is easy to say, but consider carefully what it would mean in practice.
> > How could we implement such a policy in Ubuntu?  Before we can even begin to
> > estimate the effort required in order to achieve this, we would need to
> > rigorously specify every feature in Ubuntu and how it should work.  While
> > this is common in traditional software development models, consider the
> > sheer scope of Ubuntu: how long would it take, and how many people, just to
> > enumerate all of this functionality?
> >
> > Instead, we focus on defining a subset of functionality which can be tested
> > in practice.  You can find the corresponding test plans here:
> > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing along with instructions for how you can
> > participate in the testing effort and find the problems which matter to you.
> 
> But why not then create such subset as spec? For example, for standard
> desktop? Only such way we can track down regressions and do *planned*
> testing instead of just jogging strings for known scenarios, leaving
> corner cases out in the cold. This would definitely help with creating
> test cases too.

What purpose would such a spec serve that isn't already served by the test
cases (which already exist)?  It is a noble goal to have a rigorous
specification for Ubuntu, but consider the effort of keeping it up to date
as our thousands of upstream projects continue to change.  We do create
specifications for projects which we undertake within Ubuntu, but for most
everything else, test cases have more practical use in our environment than
specifications.

The test cases are at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Cases, which those of
you who have helped with ISO testing (thanks!) will have seen.

However, they aren't by any means complete.  If you would like to help
improve them, you should coordinate that work with the QA team, since these
plans are provided as instructions to testers and should be changed with
care.

In fact, they probably *shouldn't* be complete; we need a useful subset
which can be tested again and again.  If we were to create a test plan which
involved twisting every knob and dial in Ubuntu, nobody would be able to
finish a test.

-- 
 - mdz