Releases/Thunderbird 3.0b4/Post Mortem
From MozillaWiki
Post Mortem for the Thunderbird release of 3.0b4 (DialIn Info)
Contents
What went well
- New Beta Release Bug Creator
- Made filing of bugs much easier and quicker.
- All information in one place, only quick visual check made.
- General Process
- Went smoothly.
- Felt good - no real stress points.
- Good communication.
- String & Code Freezes
- We had time to meet string freezes with no late checkins.
- Code Freeze wasn't quite met, but the stabilisation period adsorbed that without delaying the start of freeze.
- Checklist
- Updated list was clear.
What could have gone better, and lessons learned
Leading up to the release
- Try not to have freezes on the same day (or near to) as a national holiday.
- Created a new Thunderbird/Release_Driving/Checklists page for checklists and added a checklist for schedules.
String Freeze
Code Freeze
- Didn't quite meet the full code freeze, mainly due to later landing of faceted search.
Release Notes
- Would have liked drafts posted one working day earlier - to allow a bit more checking.
- People don't read release notes, lets hope bug 516884 does its job.
Build
- Need to patch sentryviewer prior to release so we can monitor uptake ourselves
- Need to update /pub/mozilla.org/zz/rsyncd-mozilla-current.exclude so mirrors will pick up the update
- Need caution with version numbering, release automation created installers called "Thunderbird 3.0" instead of previous times "Thunderbird 3", caused bouncer typos
- Standard8: Added note to bug creation page: [http://hg.mozilla.org/users/bugzilla_standard8.plus.com/drivertools/rev/b724be4b40c1 b724be4b40c1
- tbirdbld vs. cltbld account permissions for tagging not yet sorted out with MoCo
- rebuilding for a single locale (zh-TW) turned out to be a much more manual process than I had hoped for, creating unnecessary delays
- Possibly build system that should send email to drivers to confirm completion of builds.
- Release Driver possible to do checkin for build revisions.
QA
Overall a good release happy about :
- community participation.
- quality of the build.
- Respect of schedule.
Need to improve
- l10n spot checks as the zh-TW issue was caught by pure luck.
- try to get more Mac/Linux testers.
- a bit communication when things go wrong.
L10n
- zh-TW had a broken about: box.
- Rebuilt within en-US string as no localiser contact.
- Tested single-locale rebuild with build automation.
- Standard8 proposal: If something similar found in a locale in final release candidates and localiser not responding, would not publish locale. Locale would then wait until a point release.
Anything else
- http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/mtbf/of/Thunderbird/milestone is missing 3.0b4. (bug 518538)
Actions
-
gozer: Add the extra build steps bits to the beta 4 page ready for next time. - gozer: File bug on incorporating automatic email on completion into the build system.
- Standard8: Chat with gozer about checkins for build revisions.
- _Tsk_: Investigate using mozmill to test localizations for basic issue.
Attendees
rebron, dmose, _Tsk_, gozer, Standard8