The impending end of FC2 NEEDINFO bugs...

[Mike A. Harris]

Matthew Miller wrote:
> Just a heads-up: It's been almost month since I moved all open non-security
> FC2 bugs to NEEDINFO. Later this week, I plan to go the final step and move
> the ones that didn't get any action to DEFERRED.

I think I've already covered all bugs FC-2 or older for xorg-x11 and
other packages I maintain.  In general I think "WONTFIX" or some other
resolution is preferred.  The X team is avoiding using the "DEFERRED"
resolution completely nowadays because it is essentially a permanent
procrastination device that smells of indecision.

I think if something is to be truly "deferred" and have it not mean
"procrastinate" or "never", it has to have a solid decision made
about it, which either includes a final resolution (WONTFIX/NOTABUG/
UPSTREAM/NEXTRELEASE/CURRENTRELEASE, etc) or if it is thought to
still be an issue, it should be a signed a definite "target" to which
it will be investigated/reviewed/fixed/etc.

Targets can be OS release milestones or update milestones, and are
tracked in bugzilla by target trackers.  For example, in the past
I would have marked a bug that would be deferred for a future release
as "DEFERRED", however over time that just made a big pileup of
bugs in "DEFERRED" state which mostly never got attention again,
although some did.  By avoiding "DEFERRED" and using target trackers,
the attention shifts from "we're not going to do this right now" (with
no decision made as to when it will be done) shifts to "we will
look at this for FC5, by adding it to the FC5Target tracker".  The
latter ensures it is definitely on radar, and IMHO seems more
decisive to me.  We can always later on decide it to be an FC6Target
if desired, or we could later decide to change our minds and close it
WONTFIX or something else depending on circumstances at the time
in the future.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd offer this as a potential alternative
suggestion to consider.  I've been using this strategy for many
months now and find it really helps with bug management, and
keeps the "future TODO" procrastination lists significantly shorter,
simply by forcing more solid decisions to be made.

Hope the idea is useful to others too.

Take care,
TTYL