WMF Production Services Ownership Framework & Service Catalog

Greetings everyone!


On behalf of the Code Ownership Working Group, I am sharing an update on 
how the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is approaching Service[1] Ownership 
to, among other things, ensure clear accountability for responding to 
incidents in Wikimedia production services.


Wikimedia production runs a large and diverse set of software – built by 
WMF teams, affiliates, Wikimedia volunteer developers, and third 
parties. Regardless of origin, all production services need clear 
accountability for handling production failures like UBNs (UnBreak Nows 
arising from production incidents, such as security, deployment, 
availability, bugs, etc.), migrating infrastructure, and software 
upgrades. When accountability is unclear for production services, 
incident handling defaults to first responders or whomever is available, 
which isn’t a reliable model and can increase risks or delays.


We’ve therefore begun a focused effort to systematically reduce 
instances where production software lacks contingencies and clearly 
defined WMF team responsibilities. This work involves finding team 
assignments for all production services and is primarily about improving 
clarity and accountability withinthe WMF. We don’t expect assignments 
for all production services right away, but expect to gradually narrow 
the set of unowned services prioritized by risk.


Some software in the Wikimedia production environment is primarily 
developed by the Wikimedia volunteer community. Wikimedia volunteers 
make essential contributions, including during time-sensitive incidents, 
but the WMF can’t expect guaranteed availability or formal time 
commitments from volunteers. For these services, WMF teams are expected 
to step in for urgent operational needs if volunteers aren’t available. 
This is about being clear as to who should respond when production 
services need time-sensitive work (like UBNs).


We’ve published two documents on wiki (a) Service Ownership Roles and 
Responsibilities 
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Production/Service_Catalog/Ownership_Roles_and_Responsibilities> 
(b) FAQ 
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Production/Service_Catalog/FAQ>. 
As part of this work, we will borrow heavily from the existing 
Maintainers page to build a Service Catalog. We will publish this on 
wiki with an intent to gradually deprecate and retire the existing 
Maintainers page.


Please reach out on the Talk pages of the wiki pages above if you want 
any additional clarification not addressed here or in those links.


Subbu, on behalf of the Code Ownership Working Group @ WMF.


[1] Service represents a unit of ownership: microservice, extension, 
library, MW core component, etc.

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/