Bi-weekly summary of handbook changes

Announcements - Public
21

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2022-12-27

Merge request: docs: Support Cell social chat.
Description: This MR updates current practice for support cell sprints, as well as adds a procedure for social chats.

https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/STAR-2866

Author Notes

I’ve added @gabrieldamours as Sprint Manager backup, since in practice he is usually the person who handles the sprint if I’m away. I’m assuming this should be fine, though this change also introduces a responsibility on support cell sprint managers to handle the social chat by default.

This change also removes the sprint retrospective from the procedure. Since we haven’t been doing that, it shouldn’t be in the handbook. We typically do some light retrospective work in each synchronous sprint meeting, so this may be sufficient for now, but if needed I could create a follow-up ticket for making a new retrospective procedure. My suspicion is that such a procedure would be better created after moving the team to async so we can more closely mimic how the other team does it (synchronously) without adding an additional meeting.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #485.

Merge request: [STAR-2872] Add kickoff meeting to Business Development Specialist expectations.
Description: ## Description

This MR adds setting up and attending the kickoff meeting to the Business Development Specialist’s expectations.

Supporting information

https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/STAR-2872

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #484.

22

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-01-03

Merge request: feat: Add cell-wide tags.
Description: ## Description

This MR adds cell-wide tags to the OpenCraft YAML file. The intent is that all cell members will be given these tags in order to apply these tags uniformly across cells that are otherwise of different types. For instance, while we could (and should) create tags for ‘Support Cell Member’, ‘Project Cell Member’, and ‘Generalist Cell Member’ when assembling tags in SprintCraft, we need to be able to tag cells with similar requirements/responsibilities/roles, such as Bebop and Falcon, and sometimes Bebop, Falcon, and Serenity. This can then be leveraged by Listaflow.

This MR also fixes a typo in some of the test data.

Testing instructions

  1. make install_prereqs
  2. make test

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #486.

Merge request: docs: Support Cell social chat.
Description: This MR updates current practice for support cell sprints, as well as adds a procedure for social chats.

https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/STAR-2866

Author Notes

I’ve added @gabrieldamours as Sprint Manager backup, since in practice he is usually the person who handles the sprint if I’m away. I’m assuming this should be fine, though this change also introduces a responsibility on support cell sprint managers to handle the social chat by default.

This change also removes the sprint retrospective from the procedure. Since we haven’t been doing that, it shouldn’t be in the handbook. We typically do some light retrospective work in each synchronous sprint meeting, so this may be sufficient for now, but if needed I could create a follow-up ticket for making a new retrospective procedure. My suspicion is that such a procedure would be better created after moving the team to async so we can more closely mimic how the other team does it (synchronously) without adding an additional meeting.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #485.

23

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-01-10

Merge request: [STAR-2821] Update recruitment steps doc
Description: Updating contract_new_hire.md following the start of 2-week trials.

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #487.

Merge request: feat: Add cell-wide tags.
Description: ## Description

This MR adds cell-wide tags to the OpenCraft YAML file. The intent is that all cell members will be given these tags in order to apply these tags uniformly across cells that are otherwise of different types. For instance, while we could (and should) create tags for ‘Support Cell Member’, ‘Project Cell Member’, and ‘Generalist Cell Member’ when assembling tags in SprintCraft, we need to be able to tag cells with similar requirements/responsibilities/roles, such as Bebop and Falcon, and sometimes Bebop, Falcon, and Serenity. This can then be leveraged by Listaflow.

This MR also fixes a typo in some of the test data.

Testing instructions

  1. make install_prereqs
  2. make test

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #486.

24

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-01-17

Merge request: [STAR-2719] Reorganize budgeting/sustainability doc and add section about billable/non-billable work
Description: This MR does three things:

  • billable_work.md adds a new section in our handbook explaining how Billable vs. Non-Billable / Support vs. Maintenance work works, so that developers better understand the implications of each type of account (and their impact on billing and sustainability).
  • it removes the documentation related to budgeting/sustainability from epic_planning_and_sustainability_management.md , and instead creates a dedicated section for it (sustainability_management.md) for improved readability and discoverability. [<-this is out of the scope of STAR-2719, but I got the idea while doing it]
  • The section describing the types of billable accounts is moved from sustainability_management.md to billable_work.md

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #488.

Merge request: [STAR-2821] Update recruitment steps doc
Description: Updating contract_new_hire.md following the start of 2-week trials.

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #487.

25

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-01-24

Merge request: [STAR-2719] Reorganize budgeting/sustainability doc and add section about billable/non-billable work
Description: This MR does three things:

  • billable_work.md adds a new section in our handbook explaining how Billable vs. Non-Billable / Support vs. Maintenance work works, so that developers better understand the implications of each type of account (and their impact on billing and sustainability).
  • it removes the documentation related to budgeting/sustainability from epic_planning_and_sustainability_management.md , and instead creates a dedicated section for it (sustainability_management.md) for improved readability and discoverability. [<-this is out of the scope of STAR-2719, but I got the idea while doing it]
  • The section describing the types of billable accounts is moved from sustainability_management.md to billable_work.md

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #488.

26

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-01-31

Merge request: [STAR-2989] Consolidating and updating admin recruitment doc
Description: This MR:

  • Moves the contents of billing_onboarding.md and contract_new_hire.md (previously found outside the handbook, at documentation/public/tutorials/howtos) to new sections in recruitment.md, to consolidate all admin-related recruitment instructions and make them available in the handbook.

  • Updates recruitment.md to reflect how billing is managed for trial projects.

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #490.

Merge request: [STAR-2299] Add Fox as Developer Advocate, add processes.
Description: ## Description

This MR adds Fox explicitly as developer advocate, and documents the processes that the Developer Advocate uses.

Testing instructions

View the preview app and make sure the layout and links work.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #489.

27

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-02-07

Merge request: docs: mention automation of client strategy tickets in epic management checklist template
Description: ### Description

This MR adds a mention of the client strategy tickets scheduling automation to epic management checklist template, so that client owners that setup new epics are aware of this automation and can do necessary setup steps to benefit from it.

References

Author: Maxim Beder

For more details visit: #492.

Merge request: [SE-2958, SE-248] Move Keith to Bebop
Description: … and hand backup for sprint management roles over to Gábor.

Other drive-by adjustments:

  • Change Chris’s status from contractor to core (FAL-49).
  • Fix some typos and broken links.

Tickets

Rendered changes

https://opencraft.gitlab.io/-/documentation/public/-/jobs/3761314964/artifacts/preview/index.html

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #491.

Merge request: [STAR-2989] Consolidating and updating admin recruitment doc
Description: This MR:

  • Moves the contents of billing_onboarding.md and contract_new_hire.md (previously found outside the handbook, at documentation/public/tutorials/howtos) to new sections in recruitment.md, to consolidate all admin-related recruitment instructions and make them available in the handbook.

  • Updates recruitment.md to reflect how billing is managed for trial projects.

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #490.

Merge request: [STAR-2299] Add Fox as Developer Advocate, add processes.
Description: ## Description

This MR adds Fox explicitly as developer advocate, and documents the processes that the Developer Advocate uses.

Testing instructions

View the preview app and make sure the layout and links work.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #489.

28

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-02-14

Merge request: fix: force base-10 interpretation in post summary date check
Description: The expression which checks whether this is an even week starting from 2022-04-18 is failing in here due to bash interpreting 08 as an octal number. This fix forces base-10 interpretation for the same.

Better explanation: bash - Value too great for base (error token is "08") - Stack Overflow.

The check is now passing as seen here. Ignore the pipeline failure which is due to the job running on this branch not having access to secrets.

Author: Navin Karkera

For more details visit: #494.

Merge request: Add Open edX public roadmap entry to epic checklist.
Description: ## Description

This Merge Request adds the need to put any major changes to the platform on the Open edX public roadmap.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #493.

Merge request: docs: mention automation of client strategy tickets in epic management checklist template
Description: ### Description

This MR adds a mention of the client strategy tickets scheduling automation to epic management checklist template, so that client owners that setup new epics are aware of this automation and can do necessary setup steps to benefit from it.

References

Author: Maxim Beder

For more details visit: #492.

Merge request: [SE-2958, SE-248] Move Keith to Bebop
Description: … and hand backup for sprint management roles over to Gábor.

Other drive-by adjustments:

  • Change Chris’s status from contractor to core (FAL-49).
  • Fix some typos and broken links.

Tickets

Rendered changes

https://opencraft.gitlab.io/-/documentation/public/-/jobs/3761314964/artifacts/preview/index.html

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #491.

Merge request: Added notes on using rsync for MySQL replicas
Description: ## Description

Added clearer notes on syncing a MySQL replica properly.

Supporting information

Author: Keith Grootboom

For more details visit: #439.

29

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-02-21

Merge request: [STAR-2712] Remove mentions of Pro & Teacher Plan
Description: This MR removes all mentions of the Pro & Teacher hosting plan in the handbook, since the hosting plan has now been terminated.

Testing instructions:

[ ] Parse through changes

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #496.

Merge request: docs: Update sprint planning docs to match current practices.
Description: ## Description

This MR updates the sprint planning process documentation to more closely match current practice, cleaning up some references and links in the process.

Testing instructions

Check the ‘view app’ link that GitLab constructs for us in on the MR page.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #495.

Merge request: fix: force base-10 interpretation in post summary date check
Description: The expression which checks whether this is an even week starting from 2022-04-18 is failing in here due to bash interpreting 08 as an octal number. This fix forces base-10 interpretation for the same.

Better explanation: bash - Value too great for base (error token is "08") - Stack Overflow.

The check is now passing as seen here. Ignore the pipeline failure which is due to the job running on this branch not having access to secrets.

Author: Navin Karkera

For more details visit: #494.

Merge request: Add Open edX public roadmap entry to epic checklist.
Description: ## Description

This Merge Request adds the need to put any major changes to the platform on the Open edX public roadmap.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #493.

Merge request: Added notes on using rsync for MySQL replicas
Description: ## Description

Added clearer notes on syncing a MySQL replica properly.

Supporting information

Author: Keith Grootboom

For more details visit: #439.

30

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-02-28

Merge request: [STAR-2958] Apply changes from latest company-wide sustainability review
Description: - Serenity’s monthly budget cap is now 208h.

  • Falcon’s sustainability target is now 18%.
  • Bebop’s sustainability target is still 26%.

Also applies the following drive-by updates:

  • Remove obsolete note about estimation session being closed on Day 10 of the sprint (follows up on !495).
  • Reassign Marketing Specialist role (@gabrieldamours passed it on to @cassiez).
  • Link to current version of Serenity’s cell-level roadmap.
  • Fix link formatting in epic description template.
  • Remove remaining mentions of “self-hosted” instances (follows up on !496).

Reviewers

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #497.

Merge request: [STAR-2712] Remove mentions of Pro & Teacher Plan
Description: This MR removes all mentions of the Pro & Teacher hosting plan in the handbook, since the hosting plan has now been terminated.

Testing instructions:

[ ] Parse through changes

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #496.

Merge request: docs: Update sprint planning docs to match current practices.
Description: ## Description

This MR updates the sprint planning process documentation to more closely match current practice, cleaning up some references and links in the process.

Testing instructions

Check the ‘view app’ link that GitLab constructs for us in on the MR page.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #495.

1 Like
31

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-03-07

Merge request: [STAR-3067] Updating recruitment doc
Description: This MR updates the recruitment process documentation to reflect current practices. It introduces a light change in the blog process as well (removing my name).

Testing instructions:

  • Check changes in rendered version for content accuracy and syntax

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #498.

Merge request: [STAR-2958] Apply changes from latest company-wide sustainability review
Description: - Serenity’s monthly budget cap is now 208h.

  • Falcon’s sustainability target is now 18%.
  • Bebop’s sustainability target is still 26%.

Also applies the following drive-by updates:

  • Remove obsolete note about estimation session being closed on Day 10 of the sprint (follows up on !495).
  • Reassign Marketing Specialist role (@gabrieldamours passed it on to @cassiez).
  • Link to current version of Serenity’s cell-level roadmap.
  • Fix link formatting in epic description template.
  • Remove remaining mentions of “self-hosted” instances (follows up on !496).

Reviewers

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #497.

32

@serenity @falcon @bebop You’re probably aware of :arrow_up: these changes :arrow_up: already but just to make sure.

These numbers came out of the second company-wide sustainability review.

We also established a new company-wide sustainability target in the context of that review. I’m not including it here since this is a public thread and we don’t disclose the company-wide sustainability target publicly. If you are interested you can head over to SprintCraft and check the sustainability dashboard to see what it is :man_detective: :slightly_smiling_face:

34

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-03-14

Merge request: Update remaining references of Serenity’s previous budget cap
Description: Follows up on https://gitlab.com/opencraft/documentation/public/-/merge_requests/497.

Handbook now consistently references Serenity’s new budget cap of 208h.

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #499.

Merge request: [STAR-3067] Updating recruitment doc
Description: This MR updates the recruitment process documentation to reflect current practices. It introduces a light change in the blog process as well (removing my name).

Testing instructions:

  • Check changes in rendered version for content accuracy and syntax

Author: Gabriel D’Amours

For more details visit: #498.

Merge request: feat: adds Sabine to the handbook
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #477.

35

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-03-21

Merge request: docs: Type and fixes on the Recruitment doc
Description: I made the following changes:

  • Typos and fix broken links on the Recruitment document.
  • I added Christofer as Recruitment Manager’s backup.

Author: Christofer Chávez Carazas

For more details visit: #500.

Merge request: Update remaining references of Serenity’s previous budget cap
Description: Follows up on [STAR-2958] Apply changes from latest company-wide sustainability review (!497) · Merge requests · opencraft / documentation / public · GitLab.

Handbook now consistently references Serenity’s new budget cap of 208h.

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #499.

Merge request: feat: adds Sabine to the handbook
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #477.

36

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-03-28

Merge request: docs: Type and fixes on the Recruitment doc
Description: I made the following changes:

  • Typos and fix broken links on the Recruitment document.
  • I added Christofer as Recruitment Manager’s backup.

Author: Christofer Chávez Carazas

For more details visit: #500.

37

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-04-04

Merge request: feat: add sathis kumar
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #502.

Merge request: [STAR-3090] Explanation of maintenance contract pricing.
Description: This Merge request adds in an explanation of the sales purpose of maintenance contracts, and the tiers of maintenance contracts we offer. It also includes factors to consider when choosing one maintenance contract offer over another.

JIRA tickets: Log in - OpenCraft

Author notes and concerns:

  1. I’ve flattened the recommendations to two tiers with fixed amounts. Hopefully these should still be sane.
  2. I’ve stated that the amounts should be based on the on-demand rate. I’m pretty sure that’s always been the case, but noting it explicitly here.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #501.

38

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-05-16

Merge request: [FAL-49] Drive-by fixes for a couple small inconsistencies
Description:

  • Fixes a couple ticket refs in template for epic planning and sustainability updates.
    • Discovered in the context of epic planning and sustainability updates for Falcon.
  • Updates Cell-Specific Rules page to explicitly mention Falcon’s current limit for simultaneous vacations.

Tickets

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #505.

Merge request: [STAR-3148] docs: Update vacation checklist to point to Listaflow.
Description: This PR links handbook to the vacation checklist. It also removes many of the to-dos which are covered explicitly in the vacation checklist so that there’s no chance the two get out of sync.

JIRA tickets: Log in - OpenCraft

Author notes and concerns:

There’s some discernment here on which items on the vacations page were best to move entirely to the checklist, and which should still be in the handbook. This means I haven’t entirely removed all redundant information between the two, but I have removed most, and kept in the handbook those things that seem most oriented toward the more meta aspects of how vacations are coordinated.

Author: Fox Piacenti

For more details visit: #504.

39

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-05-30

Merge request: feat: remove sathis, add yusuf to bebop
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #508.

Merge request: [BB-7462] Move the newcomer 121 checklist to listaflow
Description: The checklist has been moved from the handbook to Listaflow and is available as a template at Listaflow

The newcomer can create a new checklist using the template everytime they have their 121.

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #507.

Merge request: docs: remove instance checklist and link to listaflow
Description: Link to templates section of listaflow as instance checklist has been migrated to Listaflow

Jira: Log in - OpenCraft

Author: Navin Karkera

For more details visit: #506.

Merge request: [BB-7375] Trial Project based recruitment process
Description: In this MR we replace the Trial Period with the Trial Project based recruitment process. This includes a number of changes from [BB-4885] Process spring clean - Simplifying trial process (!355) · Merge requests · opencraft / documentation / public · GitLab and a few improvements to the process based on recent experiences.

The new recruitment process -

  1. Prepare a list of trial projects
  2. Preselection of candidates
  3. Interview 1 (Recruitment Managers)
  4. Review & Selection of candidates from Interview 1
  5. Interview 2 (Admin Specialist)
  6. Selection of candidates from Interview 2
  7. Signing Contract
  8. Assignation of trial project
  9. Review of trial project
  10. Start of Onboarding Period (2 months)
  11. Screening review after 10 days
  12. Developer Review after 2 months

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #503.

40

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-06-13

Merge request: chore: remove geoffrey
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #509.

41

@team

Summary of merge requests for opencraft/documentation/public from 2023-06-27

Merge request: docs: Replace LabXchange with Modular Learning for Falcon.
Description: Replaces LabXchange with Modular Learning on list of current cells page.

Screenshots

Tickets

Author: Tim Krones

For more details visit: #512.

Merge request: chore: remove keith
Description:

Author: Christofer Chávez Carazas

For more details visit: #511.

Merge request: feat: adds romulo to falcon
Description:

Author: Arunmozhi

For more details visit: #510.