UDS-R: Rise of the the (quality) machines

Greetings from Copenhagen! I thought I would give a mid-UDS checkup for the quality team community. You may have already heard some of the exciting stuff that is already been discussed at UDS. Automated testing is being pursued with full vigor, the release schedule has been changed, and cadence testing is in. In addition, ubuntu is being focused into getting into fighting shape by targeting the Nexus 7 as a reference platform for mobile.

I was honored enough to have a quick plenary where attendees here got to see and hear about the various automated testing efforts going on. Does that mean the machines have replaced us? Hardly! The goal with bringing automated testing online is to help us be more proactive with how and why we test. We've done an amazing job of reacting to changes and bugs, but now as a community I would like us to focus on being proactive with our testing. The changes below are all going to help set us firmly in this direction. By proactively testing things, we eliminate bugs, and repetitive or duplicated work for ourselves. This frees us to explore more focused, more interesting, and more in-depth testing. So without further ado, here's a quick rundown of the changes discussed here in Copenhagen -- hang on to your testing hats!

Release
The Release schedule has dropped all alphas, and the first beta, resulting in a beta and then final release milestone only. In addition, the freezes have been moved back a few weeks. The end result is the archive will not be frozen till late in the cycle, allowing development and testing to continue unencumbered. This of course is for ubuntu only. Which brings us to flavors!


Flavors
Flavors will now have complete control over there releases. They can chose to test, freeze, and re-spin according to there own schedule and timing. Some will adopt ubuntu's schedule, others may retain the old milestones or even do something completely different.


ISOs
Iso's will now be automatically 'smoke' tested before general release. No more completely broken installers on the published images! In addition, the iso's will be published daily as usual, but will not have typical milestones as mentioned above. Preference will be given to the daily iso -- the current one -- throughout the cycle. Testing will occur in a cadence instead of a milestone.

Cadence
Rather than milestones, a bi-weekly cadence of testing will occur with the goal of assuring good quality throughout the release cycle. The cadence weeks will be scheduled and feature testing different pieces of ubuntu in a more focused manner. This includes things like unity, the installer, and new features landing in ubuntu, but will also be the target of feedback from the state of ubuntu quality.

State of ubuntu Quality
A bold effort to generate a high level view of what needs testing and what is working well on a per image basis inside of ubuntu. This is an experimental idea whose implementation will garner feedback early in the cycle and will collect data and influence decisions for testing focus during the cycle. *fingers crossed*

AutoPilot
This tool will integrate xpresser to allow for a complete functional UI testing tool. One of the first focuses for testcases will be automating the installer from a UI perspective to free our manual testing resources from basic installer testing! From the community perspective, we can join in both the writing, and executing of automated, as well as the development of the tool itself.

Hardware Testing Database
This continuing experiment will become more of a reality. The primary focus of the work this cycle will be to bring the tool, HEXR, online and to do basic integration with the qatracker for linking your hardware profiles. In addition, focused hardware testing using the profiles will be explored.

I hope this gives you a nice preview of what's coming. I would encourage you to have a look a the blueprints and pads for the sessions, and ask questions or volunteer to help in places you are interested. I am excited about the opportunities to continue bringing testing to the next level inside of ubuntu. I  owe many thanks to the wonderful community that continues to grow around testing. Here's to a wonderful cycle.

Readying for UDS

I trust everyone is readying themselves -- don't blink! Ubuntu UDS-R is already upon us. Those of you who have been watching closely may have heard about some of the planned sessions for QA, but if not feel free to take a look. Don't worry, I'll wait.

But wait, there's more! In addition, there is going to be an evening event where testing is the focus. It's happening Tuesday evening. The goal is to learn about some of the testing efforts going on inside ubuntu, including automated testing; and more importantly, to write some testcases! Folks will be on hand to help talk you through and discuss writing both automated and manual test cases.

Looking through the tsessions, I hope you have the sense that testing is continuing to play a large role in ubuntu. And further, that you can be even more invovled! UI testing, automated testing, testcase writing -- all of these are focus points this cycle and have sessions. Get involved -- and if your at UDS, please do come to a session or two, add your voice, and grab some work items :-) Let's make it happen for next cycle.

Community Charity-a-thon: The Aftermath

I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed. To those who gave on behalf of the debian community, thank you as well! I stated that for every five donations I would do a manpage for a package that is missing one :-) I received just under 5 donations marked debian, but not to worry, I'll still create a manpage for one in need. Although I did other work during the marathon, I purposefully held onto creating the manpage until I was a bit more rested -- I have enough trouble speaking English sometimes without adding in sleep deprivation. The man page readers will thank me, and I'm sure those who get my page to review will as well.

To the rest of you, thank you very much. We raised $943.34 for WaterAid. That's amazing! I'm truly touched by your generosity. Here's the complete list of donors, hats off to all of you -- I know several of you donated anonymously, thank you!

Anonymous :-)
Cormac Wilcox
Gema
Anders Jonsson
Arthur Talpaert
Sam Hewitt
Alvaro
Ólavur Gaardlykke
Joey-Elijah Sneddon
steve burdine
Thomas Martin (tenach)
Daniel Marrable
sebsebseb Mageia
Jonas Grønås Drange
Gregor Herrmann
Mark Shuttleworth
phillw
Thijs K
Alvaro
Max Brustkern
Jane Silber
Gema Gomez-Solano
Martin Pitt
Michelle Hall

Now I know no one wants to re-watch that crazy 24 hours of video, but I wanted to bring you a few highlights as well. I spent time doing some of my normal work, but I also promised to do something outside the norm. I was able to scratch an itch, and although my on-air demo failed (an uh-duh moment), I was able to record this video immediately after demonstrating where we in QA are focusing next cycle. In addition, there were several talks from QA personnel, and I recommend watching this clip if your interested in hearing Rick's take on where ubuntu is going, and indeed how quality will play a role. You can skip to here if you only want to hear his take on quality. Now is a great time to be involved in QA -- I'm excited to see things unfold for 14.04, and I hope you are to.

For the readers who actually made it this far, I've got the best for last. There were some gags in those 24 hours; for instance, check out my chicken dance! (*cough* this was supposed to be a group thing *cough*). Ohh, and there's always this lovely screencap. To be fair, this was about 20 hours or so in.

Preparing for the Community Charity-a-thon

In preparation for the 24 hour marathon, I thought I would share with everyone my thoughts on my I chose my charity, and what I plan to do for 24 hours :-) To start off the post, let me get this right out front <insert flashing lights and whirlygigs> DONATE HERE </insert>

First the charity, WaterAid. I chose WaterAid upon realizing how important water is to me. I love water -- I love to stare out across a vast sea, or to sail along it using the wind, and hearing only the splashing of the waves, and the smell of life beneath it. And of course, I consume water each day in order to sustain life. I am happy to support an organization whose goal it is to provide sustainable water sources to everyone. Water is important to life, and is a basic need for us all as humans. We need clean water, and even moreso, we need sustainable access to it. Water is precious, and it's important for us to not pollute the water we have as well. WaterAid understands this need and works with locals to help create clean renewable water sources. Consider donating to help those who don't have access to the same resource we take for granted -- available anytime out of our faucet.

I'm also placing a call out to those who are interested in QA on both the Debian and ubuntu communities to participate. I plan to spend my time during the 24 hours doing something to further the work of how you interact with ubuntu and QA. So, to that end, I'd like to ask those of you who are interested in ubuntu to donate and install ubuntu during the marathon. I'll be here to provide technical installation support for you during the install. Let's see how many exotic configurations we can see successful installations on. Got a RAID setup or some exotic hardware? Multiple disks, partitions, and Os's? Get your systems backed up now, and let's try and install. NOTE, I'd encourage using the latest daily iso for installation, but you are welcome to also use beta2.

In addition for those of you in the Debian community, I am issuing a challenge for donations. For every 5 donations from the Debian community, I will write a missing man page from the list. I'll be focusing on things I use, but feel free to offer a suggestion during the marathon!

I would also issue a challenge to the greater ubuntu community. Do you have a problem that you are unable to solve within ubuntu? While I can't promise a fix for your issue, I will offer you my personal attention to help solve your problem. I'll help you file a bug, confirm it, or help you debug the problem to the best of my ability. I'll even offer my karma on askubuntu to your question ;-) If I get overwhelmed with donations, I'll pull the highest donators first -- but we do have 24 hours to fill! Note, I plan to do this work on Thursday, on-air, but you can donate in advance. Just leave me a note, or simply send me an email after your donation with your request if you donate in advance.

Finally, if none of the above suits you, I am happy to have a personal 1 on 1 match of highest level house of cards building, or another quick playing game of your choice on air. And don't worry, I'm ruthless competition, no pushover here!