Re: [native-lang] Status update season!

On 13/12/2006, at 2:26 AM, Charles-H.Schulz wrote:

> And for everybody here on this list, I know you are all focused on the
> 2.1 release, but a status update on your project would be of course  
> very
> nice!

VI: we would have released yesterday but...

we didn't know that the entire QA process had to be completed for all  
builds in order to release.

In fact, had I not stumbled onto the QA list to ask questions about  
an issue, some weeks back, we wouldn't have even known there _was_ a  
separate QA project.

QA is, of course, an integral part of any i18n project. It is  
essential to make sure the translation is checked, reviewed, builds,  
installs and runs in production.

So our release schedule allowed for all that, and we completed it  
ourselves. We translated, reviewed, checked, submitted, then tested  
our builds in production. We were all set to release our language  
yesterday.

Since I've volunteered for the QA project, I've been trying to  
understand the QA tools. I haven't got anywhere with testtool yet,  
but I've been using TCM, and have got part-way through TCM for Mac  
Intel.

However, nobody else in my team has enough time and English combined  
to work out how to use these tools. My original plan was to work them  
out myself, between this release and the next, then write a Howto in  
our language. I've also talked with the other QA people about  
translating the TCM interface into Vietnamese.

We (VI) had absolutely no idea that all these formalized QA  
procedures had to be completed in order to release our translation.

I had actually begun worrying about release procedures, since on any  
other project, I would have seen posts leading up to release,  
reminding i18n volunteers of the deadlines and other tasks to be  
completed in that time. Nothing was said.

I kept re-reading the release schedule, instructions for committing  
translations etc. but couldn't find anything else we had to do. I  
even asked on the QA list exactly where QA fit in with release. I  
finally got an answer the day before release. The formalized QA  
procedures are a prerequisite for release.

I am deeply concerned about the lack of overall information provided  
to people entering the OOo project. This is the only project with  
which I'm involved, where someone entering the project, posting for  
the first time on a mailing list and saying "Here I am, and this is  
what I hope to do", or "Here I am, what should I do?" _doesn't_ get a  
response of this kind:
________
Welcome X!
Our aims are Y [link to details].
Z [link] is our homepage.
Please read the Howtos and other background information here. [link(s)]
In order to participate, you need to do A, B, C ...
________

I write this sort of mail myself several times a week on different  
projects' lists.

But in OpenOffice.org, you are just left blundering around in the  
dark. There are occasional pointers, like Rafaella's blessed post  
about the release schedule (one group of facts to which I have clung  
throughout these confused months), but in general, it seems that  
people _assume_ you know all the things you need to know.

Each time I trip over yet another thing I was supposed to know, and  
didn't, because I was never told or pointed to it, I feel even more  
confused.

And if I'm blundering around in the dark, how does this affect my  
team? They have trusted me to get them to release, after years of  
failure and public disgrace.

We worked out a release schedule, took into account everything we  
knew and everything I could find out by asking a lot of questions,  
but in the end, I didn't ask the right questions. I've tripped over  
one too many things in the dark, and I've taken my team with me.

This looks really bad from our community POV. The release which was  
scheduled for yesterday, and for which we were completely ready,  
hasn't occurred. All I can say to my team and other stakeholders is,  
"I didn't know about this major prerequisite everyone else knows  
about." I've let them down so badly.

This was supposed to be our first release. We had a whole promotion  
campaign waiting in Vietnam, focussed on releasing yesterday. The  
Department of Science and Technology in Vietnam, several different  
universities in Vietnam, Intel and their business and training  
network throughout Asia, NGOs like Oxfam and AUF, the user network  
(VietLUG, Hanoi LUG etc.) are all set up and waiting to promote the  
use of OpenOffice.org throughout Vietnam. We have grants to stamp CDs.

And it all falls apart, because I didn't know what I was supposed to do.

So our status is just "derailed and discouraged".

We don't know what to do from here. All those organizations and  
people expecting the release, and we can't release. I'm the only one  
who understands any of the QA tools, and I understand very little as  
yet. I use a Mac. Most of our users are on Windows and Linux. We've  
done a lot of production testing, but we haven't done the formalized  
QA procedures.

I've forgotten what it's called, that reaction when a bird flies into  
a window, and is shocked and immobilized afterwards. This  
OpenOffice.org seagull has flown into a window. I thought it was open.

from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm  
Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN