Introducing Products

[Tim Gardner]

On 11/22/2010 01:02 PM, Emmet Hikory wrote:
> In the testing team, we've been using the concept of "product" for
> some time, to better identify the artifacts that capture our
> attention, but I am unsure that this concept has been shared with
> the wider development community.
>
> A product is an image containing some portion of Ubuntu software,
> targeted for some specific installation environment, and released
> following our release management processes.  Some examples of our
> current products include:
>
> Ubuntu Desktop Live i386 Ubuntu Server Alternate amd64 Kubuntu
> Desktop Live powerpc Ubuntu Netbook Preinstalled armel+omap3
>
> In an attempt to better manage our products, and ensure that each
> product is well tested and well supported, a more formal means of
> tracking products is being established, so that each product must be
> deliberately selected by some team willing to commit to the
> validation and certification processes, consisting of those who have
> both the necessary hardware and familiarity with the software to
> provide effective testing; and each product must have a nominated
> product manager.
>
> Towards that end, each flavour team should consider which
> installation targets they wish to support, and identify a product
> manager who will be available as a contact for the release team to
> provide confirmation of the completion of milestone validations and
> release approval for each product.  Depending on the internal
> organisation of any specific flavour team, these product managers
> might be part of the development team, part of the testing team, or
> part of a management team.  In all cases, the nominated product
> managers should have access to the installation environment towards
> which their product is targeted.
>
> Those interested in following the specifics of the implementation are
> encouraged to subscribe to the relevant specification (1), which will
> be used for the tracking of the implementation.
>
> I will be contacting each flavour team in the near future to discuss
> the available installation targets and the set of products to be
> released with Ubuntu 11.04.  Once complete, the set of images
> produced will be limited to only include those for which product
> managers have been nominated.
>
> 1:
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/other-qa-n-testing-different-architectures
>
>  -- Emmet HIKORY
>

I like your proposal. In the past, due to the somewhat chaotic ARM 
planning process, the kernel team has spent time and energy on ARM 
branches for platforms that nobody has actually used. We have since 
retired some ARM branches as obsolete and unmaintained.

rtg
-- 
Tim Gardner tim.gardner at canonical.com