Difference between revisions of "Nova/Mentoring"

Latest revision as of 15:09, 13 June 2019

Nova is a big project and we have several subteams that are focused on specific efforts. Each of these subteams has a weekly meeting. If you are interested in getting involved with a subteam you can either attend the weekly meeting or keep up with the meeting logs if the time is inconvenient for you. During these meetings, subteams might mention tasks they need done and if the task isn't ideal for a new contributor, you may be able to pair with a current contributor who can delegate work to you. You can also offer to help someone out with documentation or test coverage, for instance.

Each subteam has a primary organizer. If you can't attend a subteam's meeting to introduce yourself, reach out to the subteam's organizer or a member of the subteam working on the thing you are interested in, and introduce yourself to them.

The list of subteams is posted at https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Nova#Active_Sub-teams

Subteam Patches and Bugs

Subteams are encouraged to use this etherpad to highlight their priority patches and bugs for review: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/stein-nova-subteam-tracking

Attend the Project Teams Gathering or Summit Forum

Meeting the other contributors face to face is really helpful. Even if you are just starting out, being present during the discussions can provide a lot of context. Try to review items that are published in the agenda for these meetings beforehand so you have some context prior to going in. During the meetings, take really good notes and ask clarifying questions outside of the main discussion. After the meeting, summarize the keys issues in your notes so you can follow subsequent discussions. Pick some areas to follow reviews on and even if you don't feel comfortable contributing a +1, make sure you at least understand the proposal or the code change itself.

Who to Contact

If you have questions about the information on this page, please feel free to reach out to the PTL on IRC in the #openstack-nova channel.

IRC

Although people show as logged in on IRC they may not be available. When reaching out, you can either mention the person by name in the #openstack-nova channel or message them directly. When messaging in the #openstack-nova channel, please just mention the person's name and then ask your question. There is no need to do "hi" or "hello" to get their attention. If they do not answer right away, this gives others present the opportunity to assist you. If the person does not respond, you can message them directly and sometimes that will indicate their away status. If you still do not continue to get a response, then email them with your question.

Email

When emailing with questions about joining the team, the PTL can most easily assist you if you provide the following information:

What topic areas most interest you about Nova
Areas in Nova where you are most interested in contributing
Any other OpenStack contribution experience
Any other Open Source project experience (or if you don't have any, then please mention that)
Would this be volunteer work or is this part of a job expectation from your employer (ie, were you hired specifically to work on OpenStack or Nova as a developer?)

This is not a job application and you don't have to impress anyone. This information is just to assist in identifying project areas in the team that might be a good fit for your interests and experience.

Work Items for New Contributors

The following is a list of areas with projects ideal for new contributors to participate in.

Fixing Bugs

While working on bugs is a normally a good way to get to know a new code base, that can be really tricky in Nova. Randomly submitting patches for bugs without talking to anyone is probably the least effective way to contribute to Nova. Always introduce yourself to the Nova team on IRC in #openstack-nova and ask about a bug before working on it.

Picking up a Bug

If you find a bug you want to work on, first ask in the #openstack-nova channel before assigning it to yourself. This serves a few purposes:

Introduces you to the team
Announces your intent to work on a bug, so others won't work on it
Allows you to get context so your change is more likely to get approved

You can assign yourself the bug in 2 ways: 1) manually assign it in Launchpad or 2) submit a change referencing the bug ("Closes-Bug: 1234")

When you assign a bug to yourself in Launchpad, you have 2 weeks to submit a patch before you will be unassigned.

Recommended Tags

We use Launchpad as our bug tracker and bugs that have been verified are tagged to categorize them.

Here is a list of tags with bugs that might be good for new contributors:

needs-functional-test: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=needs-functional-test
api-ref: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=api-ref
doc: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=doc
testing: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=testing
api: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=api

Low-Hanging-Fruit

Bugs tagged with "Low Hanging Fruit" are not usually good for new contributors. Try to use one of the tags above instead. A list of low hanging fruit bugs is available here, if you're looking for something more advanced: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit

Reviews looking for owners

There is an etherpad for reviews looking for new owners: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/nova-reviews-looking-for-owner. This is a list of reviews that have had un-addressed feedback for a long time and look to be abandoned by their original owners. They have a good chance of merging if someone takes them over.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Category:Compute]]
+=== How to Get Involved ===
-__TOC__
+As the involvement process is pretty consistent, we've moved that information to the [http://docs.openstack.org/developer/nova/how_to_get_involved.html Developer Reference Guide]. This page covers more in-flux items like who to contact and a rotating list of tasks that are good for new contributors.
-So you want to give more involved with Nova? Or you are new to Nova and wondering where to start?
+Nova is a huge project with a lot going on, so don't expect to grok everything. You should pick a few areas to focus on while you're learning the lay of the land, or you'll get overwhelmed pretty quickly.
-We are working on building easy ways for you to get help and ideas on how to improve.
+==== Team Priorities ====
+The team priorities are documented per cycle at http://specs.openstack.org/openstack/nova-specs/#priorities
-For more details contact the [[Nova#People|Mentoring Czar]].
+==== Attend the Nova Team Meeting ====
-== How do I get started? ==
+The Nova team has weekly meetings at alternating times to accomodate different time zones. Attend this meeting, or read the logs to stay up to date. Work items often come up that you can volunteer to take on, or at least offer to help the person who has volunteered for it.
-There are quite a few global docs on this:
+The Nova meeting agenda and links to past meetings are posted at https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Meetings/Nova
-* http://www.openstack.org/assets/welcome-guide/OpenStackWelcomeGuide.pdf
-* https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/How_To_Contribute
-* http://www.openstack.org/community/
+==== Join a Subteam ====
+Nova is a big project and we have several subteams that are focused on specific efforts. Each of these subteams has a weekly meeting. If you are interested in getting involved with a subteam you can either attend the weekly meeting or keep up with the meeting logs if the time is inconvenient for you. During these meetings, subteams might mention tasks they need done and if the task isn't ideal for a new contributor, you may be able to pair with a current contributor who can delegate work to you. You can also offer to help someone out with documentation or test coverage, for instance.
-Top tips for engaging with the Nova community:
+Each subteam has a primary organizer. If you can't attend a subteam's meeting to introduce yourself, reach out to the subteam's organizer or a member of the subteam working on the thing you are interested in, and introduce yourself to them.
-* IRC
-** we talk a lot in #openstack-nova
-** do ask us questions in there, and we will try to help you
-** not sure about asking questions? feel free to listen in around other people's questions
-** we recommend you setup an IRC bouncer: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/IRC
-* Be Open
-** i.e. don't review your teams code in private, do it publicly in gerrit
-** i.e. be ready to talk about openly about problems you are having, not "theoretical" issues
-** that way you can start to gain the trust of the wider community
-* Ask questions early
-** raise any problems or questions early
-** we want to help you before you are frustrated or annoyed
-** unsure who to ask? Just ask in IRC, or check out the list of [[Nova#People|Nova people]]
-* Email
-** Use the [nova] tag in the mailing lists
-== Process ==
+The list of subteams is posted at https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Nova#Active_Sub-teams
-It can feel like you are faced with a wall of process. We are a big community, to make sure the right communication happens, we do use a minimal amount of process.
+==== Subteam Patches and Bugs ====
+Subteams are encouraged to use this etherpad to highlight their priority patches and bugs for review: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/stein-nova-subteam-tracking
-If you find something that doesn't make sense, please:
+==== Attend the [https://www.openstack.org/ptg Project Teams Gathering] or [https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Forum Summit Forum] ====
-* ask questions to find out *why* it happens
+Meeting the other contributors face to face is really helpful. Even if you are just starting out, being present during the discussions can provide a lot of context. Try to review items that are published in the agenda for these meetings beforehand so you have some context prior to going in. During the meetings, take really good notes and ask clarifying questions outside of the main discussion. After the meeting, summarize the keys issues in your notes so you can follow subsequent discussions. Pick some areas to follow reviews on and even if you don't feel comfortable contributing a +1, make sure you at least understand the proposal or the code change itself.
-* if you know of a better way to do it, please speak up
-* one "better way" might be to remove the process if it no longer helps
-=== Why bother with any process? ===
+=== Who to Contact ===
+If you have questions about the information on this page, please feel free to reach out to the [https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Nova#People PTL] on IRC in the #openstack-nova channel.
-Why is it worth creating a bug or blueprint to track your code review? This may seem like silly process, but there is usually a good reason behind it.
+==== IRC ====
+Although people show as logged in on IRC they may not be available. When reaching out, you can either mention the person by name in the #openstack-nova channel or message them directly. When messaging in the #openstack-nova channel, please just mention the person's name and then ask your question. There is no need to do "hi" or "hello" to get their attention. If they do not answer right away, this gives others present the opportunity to assist you. If the person does not respond, you can message them directly and sometimes that will indicate their away status. If you still do not continue to get a response, then email them with your question.
-We have lots of code to review, and we have tools to try and get to really important code reviews first. If yours is really important, but not picked up by our tools, its possible you just get lost in the bottom of a big queue.
+==== Email ====
+When emailing with questions about joining the team, the PTL can most easily assist you if you provide the following information:
+* What topic areas most interest you about Nova
+* Areas in Nova where you are most interested in contributing
+* Any other OpenStack contribution experience
+* Any other Open Source project experience (or if you don't have any, then please mention that)
+* Would this be volunteer work or is this part of a job expectation from your employer (ie, were you hired specifically to work on OpenStack or Nova as a developer?)
-If you have a bug fix, you have done loads of work to identify the issue, and test out your fix, and submit it. By adding a bug report, you are making it easier for other folks who hit the same problem to find your work, possibly saving them the hours of pain you went through. With any luck that gives all those people the time to fix different bugs, all that might have affected you, if you had not given them the time go fix it.
+This is not a job application and you don't have to impress anyone. This information is just to assist in identifying project areas in the team that might be a good fit for your interests and experience.
-Its similar with blueprints. You have worked out how to scratch your itch, lets tell others about that great new feature you have added, so they can use that. Also, it stops someone with a similar idea going through all the pain of creating a feature only to find you already have that feature ready and up for review, or merged into the latest release.
+=== Work Items for New Contributors ===
+The following is a list of areas with projects ideal for new contributors to participate in.
-Hopefully this gives you an idea why we have applied a small layer of process to what we are doing. Having said all this, we need to unlearn old habits to move forward, there may be better ways to do things, and we are open to trying them. Please help be part of the solution.
+==== Fixing Bugs ====
+While working on bugs is a normally a good way to get to know a new code base, that can be really tricky in Nova. Randomly submitting patches for bugs without talking to anyone is probably the least effective way to contribute to Nova. Always introduce yourself to the Nova team on IRC in #openstack-nova and ask about a bug before working on it.
-== How do I become nova-core? ==
+===== Picking up a Bug =====
+If you find a bug you want to work on, first ask in the #openstack-nova channel before assigning it to yourself. This serves a few purposes:
+* Introduces you to the team
+* Announces your intent to work on a bug, so others won't work on it
+* Allows you to get context so your change is more likely to get approved
-The first step to becoming nova-core is learning how to be an active member of the Nova community, and doing great code reviews. For more details see [[Nova/CoreTeam#Membership_Expectations]]
+You can assign yourself the bug in 2 ways: 1) manually assign it in Launchpad or 2) submit a change referencing the bug ("Closes-Bug: 1234")
-If you feel like you have the time to commit to all the membership expectations, reach out the [[Nova|Nova PTL]] who will be able to find you an existing member of nova-core to help mentor you, and when you are ready, will ask the rest of the nova-core team to take a particular interest in your review, so you can (more quickly) gain the trust of the nova-core team.
+When you assign a bug to yourself in Launchpad, you have 2 weeks to submit a patch before you will be unassigned.
-== How to do great code reviews? ==
+===== Recommended Tags =====
+We use Launchpad as our bug tracker and bugs that have been verified are tagged to categorize them.
-More details coming soon.
+Here is a list of tags with bugs that might be good for new contributors:
+* needs-functional-test: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=needs-functional-test
+* api-ref: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=api-ref
+* doc: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=doc
+* testing: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=testing
+* api: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=api
+===== Low-Hanging-Fruit =====
+Bugs tagged with "Low Hanging Fruit"  are not usually good for new contributors. Try to use one of the tags above instead.
+A list of low hanging fruit bugs is available here, if you're looking for something more advanced: https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
+===== Reviews looking for owners =====
+There is an etherpad for reviews looking for new owners: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/nova-reviews-looking-for-owner. This is a list of reviews that have had un-addressed feedback for a long time and look to be abandoned by their original owners. They have a good chance of merging if someone takes them over.