Working group leader replacement/selection

Working Groups Build-Test-Release
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Hi gang! :wave: :cowboy_hat_face:
I’ve been chair of the build/test/release working group for close to a year now, a period of time during which we made two Open edX named releases (Juniper and Koa), and I feel like it’s time for me to leave the floor to someone else. In the coming weeks/months, before the Lilac release, the working group will have to make important decisions about the new community installation; as the principal Tutor maintainer, I think it wouldn’t be fair for me to be in a leadership position when that happens. Also, I would like to be able to focus more completely on Tutor development, and other Tutor-related stuff I have in mind.

Applications for leadership of the build/test/release working group are thus open! It’s a very rewarding job, thanks to the positive energy and the involvement of the members of the group – you know who you are :wink: It requires some technical experience with Open edX, but more importantly: great management and collaboration skills. The job definitely made me grow as a person.

In the spirit of open source, the working group is still very much figuring out how to build the plane at the same time as it is flying it. Thus, the new working group leader will have to figure out what exactly is the purpose of the working group, and how to best accomplish it. Currently, the day-to-day tasks of the working group leaders include:

My vision of the upcoming challenges that await the new leadership team includes:

  • Transitioning the community installation from native Ansible-based deployment to containers.
  • Improving the communication with the edX product team to produce extensive release notes on the actual day of the release.
  • Smoothing out the on-boarding process to attract more contributors.
  • Doing a better job at celebrating achievements of the group to reward contributions.

The working group has yet to formalize how we reach decisions and elect new leaders. Based on feedback from the group I drafted this document but it’s still a work in progress. Whatever the election process ends up being, I’d like to present one or two good applicants to the group. Are you interested? That’s great! Please send me a personal message on these forums. I’d like you to share with me your vision of what the working group should be doing, and how best to achieve it.

Now of course this isn’t a goodbye, as I am not going anywhere. I’ll remain very active in the Open edX community, both as a BTR member, Tutor maintainer and core committer. In other words, I’ll be around :wink:

Thanks a lot! And a happy new year of course! :champagne: :confetti_ball:

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@regis, Thanks for keeping your hand on the rudder and guiding us in 2020! I look forward to the next phase, and Lilac. Whoever takes over, I am ready to help with whatever is needed.

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Let me follow Ned’s lead and thank you for the great work with Juniper and Koa over the past year! I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better name to head the (hopefully long-lived!) list of Open edX community release maintainers.

Cheers @regis, and happy new year!

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Aaaaand our new leader is… @arbrandes! Thanks for stepping up to the challenge Adolfo :slight_smile: We will work towards a peaceful transition in the coming days.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence, @regis and everybody else! I’m excited to be able to contribute in this manner for the next release or two! :smiley:

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Thank you @regis for all your hard work, and guiding us through the 2020 releases of open edX!

And welcome @arbrandes to your new role!

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