[Mageia-discuss] Think about bugzilla monitoring?

[Remy CLOUARD]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:13:49AM +0200, Michael Scherer wrote:
> Technically, we have a ratio of X testers per Y developers ( by
> developers, i mean people who are able to fix a bug, and by testers, i
> mean people who can and will report a bug, ie, developers count as
> testers as long as they use the software ).
> 
> X is always greater that Y
...
> So how can this be improved.
>  
> We can either reduce X ( ie number of users ), or increase Y ( number of
> developers ). We can also try to improve the efficiency of developers.
> 
> Reducing X, ie less users/testers, is not really a good option.  
> 
> Increasing Y, or developers efficiency requires almost the same step :
> move people from the users/testers group to the developers group.
> 
> And first step is that people should try to fix their own bug as much as
> possible. This way, they learn to do bug fixing, the process scale ( ie,
> we will be nearer on a proper ratio of 1 to 1 if everybody fix his own
> bugs first ). 
> 
> If we want to increase number of developers, the best way is to have
> users who care about the software ( since they report bugs ) to be able
> to fix bugs, ie become developers, or at least helping as much as
> possible ( ie, giving very precise step, giving patches, triaging others
> bugs so developpers do not have to do it, etc ). This way, there is more
> time devoted for each problem, and more knowledge for all, and more
> empowerment.
> 
> Now, that's just a goal, and while I doubt that everybody has the time
> or the envy of becoming developers ( since others areas are equally
> important, imho, and that mean others area also outside of the
> project ), I think this must be clear that it is a question of community
> sustainability. We know we cannot attain the 1 per 1 ratio, but we must
> strive for it.
> 
...
> 
> In the community world, this is not as straight, unfortunately, because
> more users do not mean more developers ( not automatically ). And while
> we try to do our best, I am sure there is possibility of improvement. 
> 
> But before improving, we first need to start :)
> 
> So to conclude, as arrogant and elitist it will sound, the best way for
> everybody to have a bug fixed is to fix it yourself.
I would like to moderate this a bit. As far as I can see on
http://www.mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=packaging there are many
volunteers to learn how to do that, approximately 12-15 people.

At the moment there are 3 people who would like to mentor these
packagers, that means that for the beginning we could form half of the
volunteers, and forming takes quite some time.

If we want to increase Y, we also need to help in that area, I see some
people from blogdrake do that as we do as well as Stéphane and Guillaume
help for the AUFML. It would be good to have these names in the
mentoring team so that we have a clear view of who is able to help Y
increase.

Though I admit that does not prevent one to try to fix his bug first,
but I would like to take this xkcd as an illustration :
http://xkcd.com/763/

Forming people is IMHO the best way to increase Y :-)

Regards,
-- 
Rémy CLOUARD
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
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