Re: [office] Comments and feature requests

[marbux <marbux@gmail.com>]

Mary, thank you for bringing these constraints to my attention. May I
respectfully suggest that OASIS consider getting into the 21st Century
in regard to issue submission and tracking. Email is a really lousy
solution to the problem. It might as well be voice-mail. :-)

Best regards,

Marbux (who is still waiting for plain text editing to be enabled in
Drupal on opendocument.xml.org so more complex and far less buggy
formatting can be used, a 10-minute task for OASIS support staff for
which I provided the step-by-step cookbook several months ago).


On 5/9/07, Mary McRae <mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org> wrote:
> Hello again everyone,
>
>   I guess it's my day to weigh in on postings.
>
>   OASIS *requires* all comments from non-TC members to be submitted through the OASIS comment mail list - this is for
> IPR reasons and ensures that anyone posting agrees to the IPR Policy for the particular TC. Also, OASIS Policy requires
> that all work of the TC be hosted on OASIS servers (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#2.8).
>
>   There are a number of TCs that use various systems to track issues lists - some use XML, some use spreadsheets, some
> use the TC wiki. In each case links are maintained to the original comment in the email archives, a responsible party is
> assigned and the status of outstanding issues is reviewed at each meeting.
>
>   Note that any comments received during a public review *must* be tracked and logged and that log becomes part of the
> submission for a Committee Specification vote.
>
>   Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions or if I can provide any assistance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mary
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: marbux [mailto:marbux@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:22 PM
> > To: Michael Brauer
> > Cc: OpenDocument
> > Subject: Re: [office] Comments and feature requests
> >
> > On 5/9/07, Michael Brauer <Michael.Brauer@sun.com> wrote:
> > > Dear TC members,
> > >
> > > below Rob and Patrick have made some suggestions how we
> > could create a
> > > process for the comment handling. I personally like these
> > ideas, and I
> > > think we should establish such a process. However, if we establish
> > > this process, we need someone who keeps track of comments, and the
> > > comment registry. Is someone of you interested in taking over this
> > > task, or volunteers to do so?
> > >
> > > We further may require some lightweight process for feature
> > requests
> > > that we get as comments. I could imagine that the one who
> > keeps track
> > > of the comments alerts the TC of new requests, and asks for a
> > > volunteer who may process the request within the TC. The
> > task of this
> > > person would be to introduce the request to the TC so that
> > the TC can
> > > accept or decline it, and, in case the request gets accepted, to
> > > advance the proposal to a state where the TC can vote on it.
> > > Obviously, there could be different volunteers for
> > different proposals.
> > >
> >
> > Based on hard experience, I would much prefer a process that
> > is less subject to breakdown and makes it easier on all
> > concerned. There is no shortage of software especially
> > designed for tracking issues as they are received and through
> > their handling and final disposition. See generally,
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tracking_system>; see
> > also comparison of issue tracking systems,
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_tracking_systems>.
> >
> > The suggested workflow is undependable and fraught with
> > opportunities for issues to be lost. E.g., dividing
> > responsibility among different volunteers to track different
> > types of issues  in their own offices invites the "I thought
> > you were handling that kind of issue"
> > confusion. The biggest design flaw in the present system is
> > requiring/allowing people to submit issues via email. A link
> > on the TC public home page to a web form with defined fields
> > for submission of issues with a relational database back end
> > would  be far less work for all concerned and be far more reliable.
> >
> > I am aware of the barriers to getting software installed in
> > the OASIS infrastructure. If there is not already an adequate
> > tracking system available for TC use, we might be better
> > served by a volunteer hosting such a service on their own
> > system. There are also free SAAS sites that offer issue
> > tracker capabilities.
> >
> > The web form could also easily allow self-categorization of
> > issue types by those who submit them.
> >
> > The workflow suggested leaves the actual tracking off-line
> > and reuquires submission of a monthly report. A system that
> > tracks such issues dynamically and is always available for
> > review would alleviate such concerns. Fact: volunteers can
> > and will become ill, take vacations, get pressed for time, or
> > experience other barriers that can interfere with the process
> > suggested.
> >
> > Many issue tracking packages also enable automated email
> > notifications when issues are submitted or their tickets
> > modified. I'm subscribed to a couple such systems myself, and
> > the TC mailing list could be subscribed so that the
> > notifications are automated.
> >
> > We need issue tracking software.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Marbux
>
>