FDP docs process - round 2

[Karsten Wade]

On Mon, 2004-08-16 at 06:50, Karsten Wade wrote:
> As detailed in
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=129993.

I'm quoting from the last two paragraphs of:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=102760&action=view

## snip
"There is likely a reason to maintain an old document for at least one
or more versions of FC. A worthy document can be carried on by the
Fedora Legacy project, if they see fit, when a version of FC is handed
off by the FC developers to the Legacy project. If you do find that it's
necessary to maintain multiple versions, you will want to have the CVS
branched. File a bug report for that, assigned to the fedora-docs CVS
maintainer, who may pass the ticket on to the FC CVS maintainer. 

If you come to a time when you realize you no longer want to or are able
to maintain your document, you should evaluate if the document deserves
to be continued. Either way, announce to the mailing list and
specifically the editor(s) about your decision and recommendations about
the fate of your document. If possible, look for a person to hand-off
maintenance to, and work with him/her/them for as long as possible to do
the hand-off. For more details, see the (unwritten) chapter in the
Documentation Guide about document hand-off."
## fin snip

I think there's a step/process missing in the middle there.  I just
encountered having two active versions of the "same" document and need
another doc-bug for it.  I got to thinking about how this could be
handled in the process, and so am proposing a solution, presented as a
*new* lifecycle for a document, DocA:

1. Open BugA1 for DocA while you are writing it, assigned to the
in-progress doc tracker bug, TrackProgress.  BugA1 is the bug you pass
to editors, QA and release, etc. as defined in the process.

2. When ready to post, reassign BugA1 to TrackRelease, the release
tracking bug.

3. When DocA is released against a version of Fedora, the associated
BugA1 is sent back to TrackProgress.  It remains in TrackProgress while
it is being maintained.

4. At some point, Fedora releases a new version, and DocA is going to be
branched for the new version into DocA1.  At this point, BugA2 is opened
for DocA2, the new version.  BugA2 and BugA1 can now work in parallel,
each pointing at a specific version of a doc in CVS.

5. BugA1 gets changed from version 'devel' to the specific version of FC
it is associated with.  BugA2 is set to version 'devel' or a 'testn' if
appropriate.

6. When DocA1 moves to unmaintained or is handed-off we close the
associated BugA1.

Pluses? Minuses?  I'll fix this into the XML process doc if it makes
sense.

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE, Tech Writer
a lemon is just a melon in disguise
http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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