The Testing and QA Teams on Launchpad

[Ara Pulido]

Hello Scott,

On 12/13/2009 11:39 AM, Scott Ritchie wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> Just something I noticed, but I think we should better clarify the
> difference between the ubuntu-testing team and the ubuntu-qa team on
> Launchpad.  Going by their launchpad descriptions it seems as though the
> QA team is intended for "serious" testers - you need to be an Ubuntu
> member, announce yourself to a mailing list, and so on.  The Testing
> Team is much simpler -- if a user finds it.

The QA team is not a team of "serious" testers. That was a attempt
Laserjock tried (but he called something different) that didn't turn out
well. Now, we consider Ubuntu QA as an umbrella of the different
activities we do to increase Ubuntu Quality: bug triaging, testing,
automation, tools, hw certification...

I have added an agenda item to this week meeting [1] to talk about this
group in Launchpad. If it should be moderated, which is the entry level,
etc.

> 
> If a potential tester goes to https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-testing
> they'll find an  open team and an invitation to join the Testing Team
> mailing list.  There are no posts on it, and that kind of discussion
> belongs in a place we'll all read.  So, I agree with the suggestion to
> simply remove that invitation and direct people to this mailing list
> instead.  I believe this was mentioned at the last QA meeting, but in
> any case traffic here seems to be fairly low.  We can worry about
> splitting the lists the way ubuntu-devel was if an army of contributors
> makes it too cluttered here, but that'll be a good problem to have ;)

This wasn't updated after the last meeting. We decided that, for now,
all discussion would be in ubuntu-qa mailing list. I have updated the
Testing Team description to reflect that decision.
> 
> If there are going to be two separate teams with distinct roles, then I
> would suggest that they mention eachother in their launchpad
> descriptions as well.  This raises the question of what to do with the
> testing launchpad team as it is - right now it's just a collection of
> people.  From my experience with the Wine team (which started as just a
> collection of people and no real launchpad tasks), I suggest making
> regular contact somehow.  Subscribing the entire team to particular bugs
> is a bad idea, however it would be very prudent to send out call for
> testing emails during the various testing phases (ISO, new feature,
> etc.)  This is as simple as hitting the Contact This Team button in
> Launchpad.
> 
> I've taken some initiative and edited "Feature Testing" on the Testing
> Team Activities page to include this role here:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Activities -- it is, of course, open to
> change and editing as I'm not quite done with the page.  We also need
> someone to send out the actual call for testing emails; I wouldn't mind
> doing it, but perhaps it wouldn't matter if the decision about what to
> email was made at the weekly QA meeting.

I think this is a good idea, sending calls for testing to the "Contact
This Team" link, but I don't think this should be exclusive for people
wanting to do Feature Testing, but for any kind of testing. I think this
should be explained in the wiki and the LP team description. Something like:

"You can subscribe to ubuntu-qa mailing list for discussions about
Ubuntu Quality. If you do not want to subscribe, announcements and calls
for testing will also be sent to everyone in the Testing Team."

I have added another agenda item [1] to decide this.

Thanks,
Ara.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Meetings
> 
> Once I'm happy with the descriptions in the Testing/Activities page,
> I'll move them (and some of the content from Grant's loco page) to the
> main Testing wiki page.  Comments appreciated :)
> 
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie
>