[arc-discuss] ksh93 and the OpenSolaris ARC process - a look back on what worked and what could be improved

[Katy Dickinson]

[followups directed at the arc-discuss alias]

At 427 messages (and counting), the ksh93 case (2006/550) was anything 
but a typical fasttrack.  Leaving the details of the project to Don, 
April and others, I'd like to focus on the things we in the ARC 
community learned from doing this review:

   o It was not clear to the ksh93-integration community that a
     bunch of outsiders (the ARC community) had just joined them
     in their discussions.

	This lead to confusion about what these newcomers
	knew and didn't know about the project.  Since
	project team members presumed (correctly) that
	new community/project members would read/scan the
	project archives before initiating a new conversation,
	they were surprised when the ARC people showed up
	with only the case materials for context.  The
	ARC members were at a disadvantage in the discussions
	because they didn't know that they were missing
	important project context and history.

	TAKE AWAY: The case submitters need to make sure
	that their project/community is aware that
	a discussion is being initiated that will
	involve a larger audience.  For example:
	http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/handbook/arc-invite/

	TAKE AWAY:  Since the ARC members don't always have
	the luxury of doing significant independent
	research, the project teams or case submitters
	should provide the ARC with any background
	info it may need to understand the issues.
	In many cases, this can be done by providing a
	short summery in the fasttrack introduction message
	that includes pointers to mail archives for
	relevant historical discussion threads.

	TAKE AWAY: In more complicated cases, this "learning"
	is done as a natural part of the review cycle, but
	in the case of first time fasttracks like this
	one, it needs special attention.


   o The discussion was hampered by posting delays caused by a
     combination of manual moderation and timezones.

	The OpenSolaris website team and the moderaters
	involved are working on solutions to the mailman
	part of the problem, and I am working on some changes
	to the ARC mail handling tools within Sun.

	TAKE AWAY:  For cases that generate large volumes
	of email, read all the replies to date before posting
	to see if your comment was already made by someone
	else.  Realize that some participants live in other
	timezones and may take several hours to respond.

   o The shear volume of messages made it hard to follow the case.

	This case was a learning experience for all of us.
	As such, the case was atypical - "normal" fasttracks
	are expected to be simple and noncontroversial; they
	end up having less than a dozen or so  email messages,
	total.  If you think abnout it, the concepts of "large
	volumes of email" and "noncontroversial" are pretty
	much at odds, implying that such projects really
	were not good fasttrack candidates in the first place.

	As we learn and understand how to do these reviews,
	I expect future cases to generate much less email.

	More info on the OpenSolaris development process can
	be found at
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/handbook/arc-dev-process/

   o The conversation needed a glossary of words and acronyms.

	TAKE AWAY:  See the new Glossary FAQ on Genunix:
	    http://www.genunix.org/wiki/index.php/Glossary_FAQ

   o Some participants lost sight of the fact that Sun is made up of
     human beings.  This lead to disrespectful statements and
     accusations, as well as presumptions that Sun was a single
     entity.

	TAKE AWAY:  Postings with personal attacks or derogatory
	statements are never appropriate. If you find yourself
	saying things like "obviously", "stupid" or "Sun decided",
	please stop and rethink what you are really trying to say.

	If you can not find a more helpful or precise way of saying
	what you mean (such as 	"It looks like you may have missed
	the discussion we had _here_ last week, where we concluded
	with this _summery_", or "I thought that PSARC decided this
	when it approved case yyyy/ccc"), or of your intent is to
	vent your frustrations and be insulting, then maybe you
	should simply delete your message before posting it.

	Factual, technical and insightful content is always welcome
	in ARC discussions; flames, flame bait and rude behavior
	isn't.

	TAKE AWAY: Sun is inanimate.  Asking it questions won't
	produce useful results. It doesn't make decisions.  It
	certainly is not on this mailing list.  We need to
	keep in mind that it is _people_ who do the work, answer
	questions, decide on policies and (sometimes) even make
	mistakes.  Don't generalize; find out who the people are
	and engage with _them_ and we will find that we get
	quicker responses and better results.

   -John Plocher
    OpenSolaris ARC Community