Re: [boost] Bug-fix volunteers: risks, downsides?

Subject: Re: [boost] Bug-fix volunteers: risks, downsides?
From: Arindam Mukherjee (arindam.mukerjee_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-10-30 14:52:25

On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 11:09 PM, Robert Jones <robertgbjones_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 7:49 PM, Mateusz Loskot <mateusz_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> > On 29/10/10 15:28, Jim Bell wrote:
> > > To round out the discussion...
> > >
> > > What risks or downsides would there be to recruiting a little legion
> > > of bug-fix volunteers and turning them loose on the tickets and/or
> > > regression matrix?
> >
> > Boost is complex and sets very high requirements.
> > ...
> > unfinished tasks may be high. The Boost team may find it challenging to
> > ...
> >
> >
> increase participation levels. The 'old guard' have done a magnificent
> ...
> unless new blood is somehow 'inducted' I fear the future for Boost is
> limited.
>

I am one of those hopefuls who responded on the thread that proposed
the idea for volunteers. I have always wanted to understand and
contribute to the Boost libraries because I felt that it would give me
an insight into the design and implementation of Boost (and perhaps
the C++ standard libraries themselves) to an extent that I lack today.
And I am certain greater participation can only mean good thing,
provided we have answers to the following questions (or at least know
where to start in trying to answer):

a. What are the concrete criteria for admitting a volunteer - where do
you set the bar. These must be verifiable objective criteria.

b. Do we have a process in place which makes the induction of
volunteers easy - how easily can a new recruit get down to the
business of fixing the bugs? Part of it depends on the bar you set in
(a) and part of it depends on the process you set. For example, the
volunteers at the least need to know the bug-fixing process that is in
place today including tools, reviews, etc. How quickly can this
knowledge be imparted.

c. As somebody already mentioned, to what extent can you provide
mentoring and who does it.

d. Finally, would someone assign tickets to volunteers - I feel this
would be a better idea than letting people pick and choose when the
volunteers start off. The process could get eased off as a volunteers
spends more time with the code base and therefore gets more familiar.

I am sure the questions are easy to ask and there are logistical
hurdles to take into account in trying to answer any of these
questions.

Arindam