We’ve been talking with product management about the RFE process and have agreed that we’ll try out a community-voting process.
First up, we are piloting this idea, hopefully it will work out, but it may also need tweaks as we move forward.
One of the things we’ve been asking for is for a better way for the Spectrum Scale user group community to vote on RFEs. Sure we get people posting to the list, but we’re looking at if we can make it a better/more formal process to support this. Talking with IBM, we also recognise that with a large number of RFEs, it can be difficult for them to track work tasks being completed, but with the community RFEs, there is a commitment to try and track them closely and report back on progress later in the year.
To submit an RFE using this process, you must complete the form available at:
https://ibm.box.com/v/EnhBlitz
(Enhancement Blitz template v1.pptx)
The form provides some guidance on a good and bad RFE. Sure a lot of us are techie/engineers, so please try to explain what problem you are solving rather than trying to provide a solution. (i.e. leave the technical implementation details to those with the source code).
Each site is limited to 2 submissions and they will be looked over by the Spectrum Scale community leaders, we may ask people to merge requests, send back for more info etc, or there may be some that we know will just never be progressed for various reasons.
At the April user group in the UK, we have an RFE (Burning issues) session planned. Submitters of the RFE will be expected to provide a 1-3 minute pitch for their RFE. We’ve placed the session at the end of the day (UK time) to try and ensure USA people can participate. Remote presentation of your RFE is fine and we plan to live-stream the session.
Each person will have 3 votes to choose what they think are their highest priority requests. Again remote voting is perfectly fine but only 3 votes per person.
The requests with the highest number of votes will then be given a higher chance of being implemented. There’s a possibility that some may even make the winter release cycle. Either way, we plan to track the “chosen” RFEs more closely and provide an update at the November USA meeting (likely the SC18 one). The submission and voting process is also planned to be run again in time for the November meeting.
Anyone wanting to submit an RFE for consideration should submit the form by email to rfe@spectrumscaleug.org before 13th April. We’ll be posting the submitted RFEs up at the box site as well, you are encouraged to visit the site regularly and check the submissions as you may want to contact the author of an RFE to provide more information/support the RFE. Anything received after this date will be held over to the November cycle. The earlier you submit, the better chance it has of being included (we plan to limit the number to be considered) and will give us time to review the RFE and come back for more information/clarification if needed.
You must also be prepared to provide a 1-3 minute pitch for your RFE (in person or remote) for the UK user group meeting.
You are welcome to submit any RFE you have already put into the RFE portal for this process to garner community votes for it. There is space on the form to provide the existing RFE number.
If you have any comments on the process, you can also email them to rfe@spectrumscaleug.org as well.
Thanks to Carl Zeite for supporting this plan.
Get submitting!