Documentation & Translation schedule review

John J. McDonough wb8rcr at arrl.net
Fri Dec 18 22:55:43 UTC 2009


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul W. Frields" <stickster at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Documentation & Translation schedule review


> to do so.  It's well-nigh impossible to relegate schedule data from
> completely different tools.

I agree.  I was just using the quickest way to check that key items on 
John's list made sense.  That's why I didn't take time to schedule all the 
peripheral tasks.  Yes, we need to make sure they get done, but the web 
output is very hard to really understand.  (Not that the web output from 
planner is all that much better!).  It is very hard to see whether the key 
items are being appropriately handled.  A schedule with just the key items 
helps see that.  Even with just a handful of tasks, the Gantt chart is just 
too long and gangly to digest.

In Fedora 12, the schedule had us making the release notes rpm TWO WEEKS 
after RelEng needed it.  I wanted to avoid that this time.  Heck of it is, I 
spent a lot of time with John on that schedule, and paid pretty close 
attention to it, and never caught that little detail until the last minute. 
Fortunately I did catch it, barely in time.

> I suspect the talk next week will help a lot in this regard. I'd also

And that really is the point.  I need that visibility into the dependencies 
to make sure we don't miss the key items in our zeal to make sure we have 
all the details covered.

> recommend that people on the team think about how we could use the
> resulting schedule in regular meetings to stay on top of approaching
> tasks.

The problem was that we WERE paying attention to the schedule, and missing 
the larger problem.  I want to make sure we get the schedule right this 
time.  When we get in the midst of it, we really can't do anything but watch 
the schedule.  What's the saying, when you are ass deep in alligators it is 
hard to keep in mind your objective is to drain the swamp?  We need that 
roadmap, but we don't want it to get us to the station after the train has 
left.

There's always a lot to do, and I really appreciate John doing the heavy 
lifting here and making sure all the details are taken care of.  If I were 
doing it, it would be an unmitigated disaster.  But I do want to emphasize 
that there are a few very key tasks that drive the rest of the schedule, and 
most importantly, they are ultimately tied to RelEng.  We have the most 
touch points with L10N, but the key, date-determining connections are with 
RelEng, and somehow those got missed last time.

--McD




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