Working Group: Chris Gresham. Patrick McNeal, Garry Zacheiss, Oliver Thomas, Steve Landry and Patricia Sheppard

  1. Introduction
    1. much of the leg work was done this past winter and spring - hence Releaseball!
    2. Steve Buckley has charged Patrick with working on solving software release problems, hence this team/working group!
    3. Marilyn would like to see a proposal by mid August, we are working around vacation schedules and aiming for the week of the 16th
  2. Project Sponsor
    1. the team agrees that this work would benefit from an external sponsor
    2. sponsor would have a vested interest in IS&T software release, act as consultant, provide feedback and hopefully be able to get behind the processes we propose
    3. Steve Gass from Libraries is our top candidate - Oliver and Pat will discuss this with him
  3. Scope of Work for this Phase
    1. What is in scope: RELEASE - the process by which IS&T introduces products and services to the MIT community
      1. we have short term goals for this team (see #4 below)
      2. there are improvements as well as new work to achieve the long term vision ("the big picture")
        • portfolio management
        • process for finding a home for orphaned products (and making recommendations)
        • escalation paths
        • change communication and management
      3. we can sequence the types of products and services that will follow the proposed release processes (desktop, Athena software, enterprise services)
        • this will allow for iterative approach, make improvements as we go
    2. What is NOT in scope: how IS&T makes decisions on what products and services it offers, prioritization of work and resource allocation ("the pipeline")
      1. this can be addressed by a different team or as part of the long term goals of the larger effort
  4. Goals for this team (what we want to present to Marilyn)
    1. 4-5 release process templates
    2. decision making guide as to whether you have a release and if so, what size
    3. definition of the various roles in the release processes
  5. Approach
    1. we have drafts of some release processes in progress, which can be found here: Releaseball
    2. we will walk various products through the draft processes to test our theories
      1. proposed products:
        • Ksplice (S)
        • Outlook 2010 (L)
        • VPN Client (M)
        • Mac OS X 10.6 (L)
        • Student Matlab (L)
        • CertAid Update (XS)
        • Exchange (XL)
        • Web Moira (M) if time allows (try a service as opposed to a product)
    3. we will capture decision making criteria and role definitions as we go through product walk throughs
      1. we can research criteria other institutions and companies have used
  6. Time line
    1. meet every week for an hour (7/22, 7/27, 8/3, 8/10)
    2. have final run through of presentation at end of those sessions (8/12)
    3. present to Marilyn (8/17)
  7. Reporting on Progress
    1. Patrick will update Steve Buckley
    2. Pat will report out to senior staff
    3. Members can update managers as desired
  8. Next Steps
    1. members prep for next weeks meeting on 7/27
      1. draft processes for extra-small, small and medium releases (current drafts can be found here: Releaseball)
      2. members can comment directly on the Releaseball wiki
    2. Steve will research project criteria referenced in #5ci
    3. Oliver and Pat meet with Steve Gass to discuss sponsorship (8/2)
Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday the 27th from 3:30-4:30pm in W92-212 (Aquarium).  The proposed agenda is as follows:
1. Walk the following products through the proposed processes
  • Cert Aid Update (extra-small)
  • Ksplice (small)
  • VPN Client (medium)
2. Capture decision making criteria and role definitions as we do the product run throughs
3. Decide next steps (prep for 8/3 meeting)
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