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Maintainer Guide

This document details the tasks that need to be done by core team (afterwards "team") members (project maintainers) in order to keep the project moving.

It is assumed that the team members are familiar with the development workflow, individual development process, and the terms used in the project as listed in those documents, project glossary, issue labels, and beyond.

Issue tracker management

Triaging an issue

A new issue needs to be triaged by a team member. Here is the process:

  1. Is the issue a duplicate of an existing issue?
    • Yes: close the issue and add a reference to the original issue (which the new issue is a duplicate of). Alternatively, close the older issue and add a reference to the newly opened issue.
    • No: continue to the next step.
  2. Does the issue provide enough information?
    • Yes: continue to the next step.
    • No: add the s.NeedsInfo label and request the issue reporter to provide more information. Additionally, if the issue does not follow the given templates (which is likely the case if the information is lacking), encourage the issue reporter to make use of an appropriate template. There is no need to comment any further until the issue reporter provides more details.
  3. Is the issue valid? (e.g. if it is a bug report, is it reproducible? If it is a feature/enhancement request, is the requested feature/enhancement absent?)
    • Yes: continue to the next step.
    • No: add the s.ToInvestigate label and assign a team member (can be yourself) to the issue. This assignee will be tasked to confirm the issue's validity, not to resolve the issue. There is no need to comment any further until the assignee confirms the validity of the issue.
      • An issue should not be left as s.ToInvestigate for too long without valid reason. If the assignee does not show any activity for at least 3 days, assign it to somebody else.
  4. Is the issue suitable? Not all issues are equal; sometimes, a valid issue does not fit well into the project's best interest.
    • Yes: continue to the next step.
    • No: to be dealt on a case-by-case basis. Possible actions include closing the issue, applying s.OnHold label and revisiting the issue in the future, or simply accepting the issue with low priority. In any case, leave a comment to explain the rationale of such action.
  5. Accept the issue by categorizing:
    • For messages directed to the team, add the label c.Message, and post a comment if you can respond or know someone who can. If the message is about help requests, add the label a-DevHelp as well.
    • For other types of issues, add the category labels as appropriate. Do NOT add e.* label.
      • Issues marked as c.Message and c.Release are exempted from all other labels.
      • If an issue is at priority p.High or higher, labels d.FirstTimers and d.Contributors cannot be applied to it.

Closing an issue

An issue can be closed without a resolution if:

  • The issue is a message and either has been resolved with no loose ends left, or has no more activity for at least 7 days after the last post in the issue thread and not pending any response from the team.
  • The issue is a duplicate of an existing issue.
  • The issue was opened in the past and is no longer relevant in the present.
  • The team has decided that the issue is not suitable to be worked on, e.g. not in line with the project's interest.

In any case, leave a comment to explain why the issue is closed without resolution.

PR management

Choosing a reviewer

  • When a new PR comes in, assign a reviewer for the PR based on the related issue's labels and team members' expertise. Try to load-balance when assigning reviewers.
  • If a reviewer does not show any activity in 2 days, post a reminder. If the reviewer still does not show any activity for the next 1 day, assign another reviewer.

Closing a PR

A PR can be closed without merging if:

  • The PR addresses something that has been fixed.
  • The PR addresses something that needs not be fixed.
  • The PR addresses an issue labelled d.FirstTimers and is authored by a contributor who has committed code to the main repository before.
  • The author does not address the review comments after 7 days.
  • The author is not acting in the project's best interest, e.g. resisting review comments, not following project guidelines.

In any case, leave a comment to explain why the PR is closed without merging.

Release management

Roles: Release Lead (RL), Project Manager (PM)

Making a release

Role: RL

New releases are made every set period of time (typically every week), in which new set of features and bug fixes are deployed for the users.

  • Before release day:
    • Create an issue for the release to announce the scheduled release time.
    • Update about.jsp with the names of new contributors, if any.
  • Release day:
    • Ensure all issues and PRs included in the release are tagged with the correct milestone, correct assignee(s), and appropriate e.* labels.
    • Merge release branch with master branch and tag the release with format V{major}.{minor}.0 (e.g. V6.0.0).
    • Close the current milestone and create a new milestone for the next + 1 release.
    • Announce the release via GitHub release feature as well as the release issue in the issue tracker. Be sure to credit all who contributed to the release in one way or another.
    • Assign PM to the "Release" issue.

Role: PM

  • Pull the latest release branch.
  • Deploy to the live server.
  • Get live green, or otherwise all test failures need to be accounted for.
  • Make the version default.
  • Close the "Release" issue.

Making a hot patch

Hot patches are releases containing fix for critical issues that severely affect the application's functionality. It is released on a necessity basis, typically few days after latest release.

Role: RL

  • Tag the release with format V{major}.{minor}.{patch} (e.g. V6.0.1).
  • Close the milestone for the patch release and announce via GitHub release feature only. Be sure to credit all who contributed in one way or another.
  • Inform PM the hot patch is ready for deployment.
  • After the last hot patch of the proper release, merge the release branch back to the current master branch.

Role: PM

The PM's actions are the same as when making a release, minus the "Closing the release issue" part.

Other tasks

Branch management

Ideally, only two branches should exist in the main repository:

  • master to contain the latest stable code.
  • release to contain the copy of the code running on the live server.

The usage of any other branch should be accounted for, and the branches should be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed.

Community membership

To welcome a new committer:

  • Add the GitHub user to the Committers team.
  • Add the committer's name and photo to about.jsp.

Subsequent promotions are done by moving the member's name to the appropriate section in about.jsp.

To welcome a new project lead:

  • Add the GitHub user to the Team-leads team.
  • Set the GitHub user to have the "Owner" role for the TEAMMATES organization.

When someone's tenure as committer or team member has passed:

  • Do NOT revoke the team membership, unless voluntarily done by the past member him/herself.
  • Move the past member's name to the appropriate section in about.jsp.

Beginner-level issues

Ensure that there is a healthy supply of d.FirstTimers-labelled issues and d.Contributors-labelled issues to last for at least 7 days considering the activity level at that point of time.

Possible d.FirstTimers issues:

  • Documentation-only changes
  • Fixing typo
  • Removing unused methods or classes

Possible d.Contributors issues:

  • Minor refactoring
  • Adding missing tests
  • Adding minor new feature or enhancement