Community QA Opportunities in Ubuntu

It's been a month since I began working with the wonderful QA community inside ubuntu. In that time I've learned there are a plethora of things going on and lots of different ways to get involved. I wanted to do a small series of posts on the available QA oppurtunites you can take part of today inside of ubuntu. There is an excellent list along with descriptions on the QA wiki site that you can read about here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Activities.

You'll notice this work is broad-reaching encompassing many different skill-sets. The community can benefit from your help no matter what skills you have! This is one of the reasons why quality is such a neat way to get involved inside ubuntu. You'll have a chance to work with people doing the latest in cutting edge development, as well as those who are keeping the LTS releases rock solid and updated for 5 years after there release.

Ready to get involved? Be sure and watch this blog for more detailed opportunities. In the meantime, here's some suggestions;

Are you a someone who loves making sure everything is always running smooth? The ubuntu+1 maintenance team would love your help!

Are your a rock-solid developer, or perhaps someone new to coding but looking to expand your skills? There are different tools being built inside the ubuntu community for helping doing quality work. There's the set of launchpad scripts for helping deal with bugs, the apport tool which deals with crash and bug reporting on your desktop, and the checkbox folks who are helping . And we can't forget about website development! The ubuntu friendly folks could always use a hand in making that site a better experience. Pick one and start hacking! Or contribute something new to fill an itch not yet scratched.

Maybe your a tester. Someone who likes running bleeding edge code, or perhaps someone who can always find a bug. Your able to make even the most robust software quiver! There are many testing oppurtunites inside of ubuntu. I'll be detailing them further in future posts. For now, look at the Activities page on the wiki, join the mailing list and jump in as the calls for testing go out! In addition, check out the ubuntu+1 forums to chat and interact with others who share the same passion for ubuntu and testing.

How about being able to write? Are you able to explain technical jargon to others? There's opportunities for you as well. The wiki itself could always use some love, and there are test cases to write.  Specifically as of this writing the community is in need of your skills to help update and edit our suite of application test cases. Check out this post.

It's wonderful to be a part of the community. Join in!