ubuntu-defect-analysts team mailing list archive

[Rick Spencer <rick.spencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Defect Analysts,

I hear you are sprinting in London next week. I hope you find the time
there fun and productive.

Whenever I talk to stakeholders, community members, users, customers,
partners, the one recurring theme that they ask me to address in Ubuntu
is "Quality". I think that Quality in Ubuntu has gotten better over
successive releases, but it has not improved as fast as expectations
have risen. The Defect Analyst role was created specifically to ensure
that we had people focused on helping engineering teams manage Quality
efforts to surpass expectations. This is a critical need for the product
if we are to succeed. So, you have a very important job to do!

When I started working on Ubuntu almost 3 years ago, we were already
unable to keep up with bug reports. There was simply too much data, but
precious little information. In other words, it was all to easy to find
bug reports, some teammates had hundreds assigned to them, but it was
very very difficult to choose the right bugs to fix with our limited
capacity. This, in a nutshell, is they key problem that you need to fix.
At any one time, the Defect Analysts should know what are the most
important bugs to fix, and what it will take to fix them. This will take
continued innovation in changing the way we work, and we are counting on
you in taking the lead in driving these innovations.

While you are each you are embedded into an engineering team, at the
same time, you are each on the virtual "Defect Analyst Team". I think
that it's important enough for you to work effectively together as a
team that I have asked Pete Graner to spend some of his management
cycles helping you coordinate your efforts. Any effective team has
shared systematic process and effecient and predictable communication
channels. Therefore, in terms of output from your sprint, I request that
end the week able to describe the elements of common work flow and
processes that you will all share with your teams and amongst
yourselves. 

Anyway, good luck next week, and let me know if you need anything!

Cheers, Rick