ProjectReunion/docs/triage.md

Issue/Pull Request Management

Overview

The Windows App SDK team manages issues and PRs in the repo using a process we call "triage". It helps us keep issues organized and focuses the attention of the different groups that work in our project.

Our objective is to make sure all issues have one or more owners, an issue type label, and one or more area labels. New issues are automatically labeled needs-triage by the msftbot, so the triage team only needs to review any issues that have been labeled as needs-triage.

Issue Types

Each issue should only have one type.

• bug
• feature proposal
• question
• documentation
• announcement

Triage Labels

1. New and re-opened issues are marked with needs-triage.
2. Issues with needs-assignee-attention should be investigated by the assignee as top priority.
3. Issues with needs-author-feedback are waiting for the author to reply.

Because many groups are involved in the Windows App SDK, we have area-... labels to help filter issues further for triage.

Area Labels

Area labels are the labels (create new ones as needed); there can be multiple area labels.

• area-AppContainer
• area-Developer tools
• area-Input injection
• area-Media
• area-Packaging
• area-Projections
• area-UWP
• area-Win32
• area-etc.

Triage Process

For each issue with needs-triage:

• Feature proposals:

  • Triage makes first pass to ask clarifying questions. If it's ok then:
    • Spec owner gets assigned
    • Adds area tag(s)
    • Gets added to Under Discussion in feature tracking board
    • Assigned owner is responsible for following the proposal process

• Everything else:

  • If author needs to provide more info, ask in comments and add needs-author-feedback
  • Add area tag(s)
  • Add tags for type of issue (bug, feature proposal, discussion, documentation)
  • Change labels to question or discussion if appropriate
  • Add nice to have for low priority issues

The temporary needs-assignee-attention label is intended for issues which need additional investigation, like debugging or another teams input, to determine how to route them.

Proposal Review Process

The Proposal Tracking board has four columns to track the progress we are making on a proposal.

• Under Discussion: Issue is actively being reviewed and discussed internally and with the community to figure out what that means for our developers and the platform
• Spec in Progress: Work is underway to get a spec ready for publishing or has already been published and is currently being shaped by the community.
• Under Development: The spec is signed off and development can start or has started.
• Backlog/Freezer: Place where we put proposals that are not high priority at this time or that can be reviewed at a later date. The backlog will be reviewed at least once monthly by the triage team.

Bot Rules

We've setup a bot to label issues, close issues that meet a criteria and flags issues that need attention

1. New and re-opened issues get needs-triage label added
2. If feature proposal is added or removed it gets added/removed from the feature tracking project board accordingly.
3. Remove needs-triage label when an issue is closed.
4. Remove needs-triage when a closed issue has a reply by someone with write access to the repo.
5. Replace needs-author-feedback label with needs-assignee-attention (if assigned) or needs-triage (if unassigned).
6. Adds status-no-recent-activity for issues that have the needs-author-feedback label after 10 days of no activity and closes them after another 10 days without activity