/GitHub-Issues-Process

How we use GitHub Issues as our project task tracker

Primary LanguageShell

This document defines the guidelines we follow for task management using GitHub Issues. It is intentionally lean and covers primarily how individual releases are managed.

Issues Management

Issues typically flow through the below states during their lifecycle.

Most states are controlled via GitHub labels. By default, state transitions are managed simply by removing the current state label and applying the appropriate next state label. The exception are the Backlog and Done states. State labels do not control these states. Rather they are controlled by being Open or Closed, and whether they are assigned to a milestone. That rule applies regardless of any labels assigned it.

Issue States

Any issue with a label is automatically excluded from the below states.

State Label Open? % Description
backlog n/a Open 0% Issues have been identified but are not yet ready for development. Backlogged issues are typically not in a milestone.
analysis Open 10% Issues are actively being analysed to determine whether it can be progressed
ready Open 20% Issues have been fleshed out to the point where they are believed to be ready to be acted upon by developers
inprogress Open 30% Issues are being worked on by a developer or another person (if not a coding task). With the exception of items that are blocked or returned to development due to failed tests, each developer should strive to have as few items in this state as possible.
review Open 70% The developer believes he/she is complete and has submitted the issue for peer review.
ci-test Open 80% Issues are code complete and can be acted on by testers. All code is assumed to be checked in and deployed to the appropriate environments for testing.
final-test Open 90% Issues have been tested and are ready for closure.
done n/a Closed 100% Issues have passed testing and are closed.

Helper Labels

The following labels are not states, per se, but help to communicate information about the issue.

Label Description
The person assigned to the issue cannot progress because they are awaiting information or action from someone else
The issue is a programmatic error (bug) in the code found during development
The issue is a programmatic error (bug) in the code found in production
The person assigned is requesting assistance on the task
The issue is a formal/written requirement
The issue was Feature Tested, but was set to failed by the person testing it

To Use This Process

The only thing that you need to configure to use this process is to add the below labels to your repo.

This bash script can be used to:

  • Remove the default GitHub labels automatically add when a repo is created.
  • Add the above process labels.

The script requests a GitHub Personal Access Token which in order to access private repos. You will need to first create a token by following these instructions.

To run the script:

  • Download (or git clone the repo).
  • Set execute permissions; chmod +x /path/set-github-labels.sh.
  • Drag the file into Terminal.

CI Testing

Items in the ci-testing state have been developed and tested locally by the developer, and changes have been comitted for the CI process to conduct tests on.

Final Testing

If an item is in final-test then the CI tests have passed. The developer may require further, wider testing, before a PR is merged for any large changes.

Failed Tests

When a test fails, in addition to moving the item back to In Development, the tester should apply the Test Failed label and re-assign the issue to the original developer. This will aid in tracking priorities and help developers identify what needs their immediate attention.

Issue Management Process

Release Closure

Each release has several tasks that need to be carried out to finalize the release. These tasks are designed to facilitate testing and publication of the completed release, as well as to prepare for the next release.

The first step is to update the test and development databases with the latest data from production. Following that, we publish the completed release to the test environment and perform integration testing. Once all of the release items have passed integration testing, we deploy the release and update any pending operational items to indicate which ones can now be worked on. The following graphic shows the individual steps for this process.

Attribution

This was originally sourced from thisisarray/GitHub-Issues-Process and has been modified to better suit the processes and workloads of LinuxServer.io