[Python-Dev] Burning down the backlog.

[Robert Collins]

On 26 July 2015 at 07:28, Robert Collins <robertc at robertcollins.net> wrote:
> On 21 July 2015 at 19:40, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> All of this is why the chart that I believe should be worrying people
>> is the topmost one on this page:
>> http://bugs.python.org/issue?@template=stats
>>
>> Both the number of open issues and the number of open issues with
>> patches are steadily trending upwards. That means the bottleneck in
>> the current process *isn't* getting patches written in the first
>> place, it's getting them up to the appropriate standards and applied.
>> Yet the answer to the problem isn't a simple "recruit more core
>> developers", as the existing core developers are *also* the bottleneck
>> in the review and mentoring process for *new* core developers.
>
> Those charts doesn't show patches in 'commit-review' -
> http://bugs.python.org/issue?%40columns=title&%40columns=id&stage=5&%40columns=activity&%40sort=activity&status=1&%40columns=status&%40pagesize=50&%40startwith=0&%40sortdir=on&%40action=search
>
> There are only 45 of those patches.
>
> AIUI - and I'm very new to core here - anyone in triagers can get
> patches up to commit-review status.
>
> I think we should set a goal to keep inventory low here - e.g. review
> and either bounce back to patch review, or commit, in less than a
> month. Now - a month isn't super low, but we have lots of stuff
> greater than a month.
>
> For my part, I'm going to pick up more or less one thing a day and
> review it, but I think it would be great if other committers were to
> also to do this: if we had 5 of us doing 1 a day, I think we'd burn
> down this 45 patch backlog rapidly without significant individual
> cost. At which point, we can fairly say to folk doing triage that
> we're ready for patches :)

We're down to 9 such patches, and reading through them today there are
none that I felt comfortable moving forward: either their state is
unclear, or they are waiting for action from a *specific* core.

However - 9 isn't a bad number for 'patches that the triagers think
are ready to commit' inventory.

So yay!. Also - triagers, thank you for feeding patches through the
process. Please keep it up :)

-Rob


-- 
Robert Collins <rbtcollins at hp.com>
Distinguished Technologist
HP Converged Cloud