[Python-Dev] Request for trackers to evaluate as SF replacement for Python development

[Brett Cannon]

The Python Software Foundation's Infrastructure committee has been charged
with finding a new tracker system to be used by the Python development team
as a replacement for SourceForge.  The development team is currently unhappy
with SF for several reasons which include:

* Bad interface
    Most obvious example is the "Check to Upload" button
* Lack of reliability
    SF has been known to go down during the day unexpectedly and stay down
for hours
* Lack of workflow controls
    For instance, you cannot delete a category once created

For these reasons and others, we are requesting the Python community help us
find a new tracker to use.  We are asking for test trackers to be set up to
allow us to test them to see which tracker we want to move the Python
development team to.  This is in order to allow the Infrastructure committee
to evaluate the various trackers to see which one meets our tracker needs
the best.

Because we are not sure exactly what are requirements for a tracker are we
do not have a comprehensive requirements document.  But we do have a short
list of bare minimum needs:

* Can import SF data
    http://effbot.org/zone/sandbox-sourceforge.htm contains instructions on
how to access the data dump and work with the support tools (graciously
developed by Fredrik Lundh)
* Can export data
    To prevent the need to develop our own tools to get our data out of the
next tracker, there must be a way to get a dump of the data (formatted or
raw) that includes *all* information
* Has an email interface
    To facilitate participation in tracker item discussions, an email
interface is required to lower the barrier to add comments, files, etc.

If there is a tracker you wish to propose for Python development team use,
these are the steps you must follow:

* Install a test tracker
    If you do not have the server resources needed, you may contact the
Infrastructure committee at infrastructure at python.org, but our resources
are limited by both machine and manpower, so *please* do what you can to use
your own servers; we do not expect you to provide hosting for the final
installation of the tracker for use by python-dev, though, if your tracker
is chosen
* Import the SF data dump
    http://effbot.org/zone/sandbox-sourceforge.htm
* Make the Infrastructure committee members administrators of the tracker
    A list of the committee members can be found at
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundationCommittees#infrastructure-committee-ic
* Add your tracker to the wiki page at
http://wiki.python.org/moin/CallForTrackers
    This includes specifying the contact information for a *single* lead
person to contact for any questions about the tracker; this is to keep
communication simple and prevent us from having competing installations of
the same tracker software
* Email the Infrastructure committee that your test tracker is up and ready
to be viewed

We will accept new trackers for up to a maximum of two months starting
2006-06-05 (and thus ending 2006-08-07).  If trackers cease to be suggested,
we will close acceptance one month after the last tracker proposed (this
means the maximum timeframe for all of this is three months, ending
2006-09-04).  This allows us to not have this process carry on for three
months if there is no need for it to thanks to people getting trackers up
quickly.

As the committee evaluates trackers we will add information about what we
like and dislike to the http://wiki.python.org/moin/GoodTrackerFeatures wiki
page so that various trackers and change their setttings and notify us of
such changes.  This prevents penalizing trackers that are set up quickly
(which could be taken as a sign of ease of maintenance) compared to trackers
that are set up later but possibly more tailored to what the Infrastructure
committee discovers they want from a tracker.

If you have any questions, feel free to email infrastructure at python.org .

- Brett Cannon
  Chairman, Python Software Foundation Infrastructure committee
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