Code Review Review and Meetings

While there has been lots of discussion over the last few weeks, I don't really get the sense that we have been actually moving the yardsticks. I'd suggest that a weekly IRC meeting (for those who can attend) might help us organize our thoughts and hash out some of the conflicts; as well as provide a chance to assist reviewers deal with any roadblocks they might be encountering.

Alternatively, as finding a time which works for all would be an issue; we could set up a thread on the main page where anyone wanting to host a 'mini-sprint' discussion on a particular issue could post a time and topic, thus providing notification of a pending discussion and allowing group members to consider whether they want to participate.

Currently, we've been using this site, and a number of different, difficult to track, threaded discussions (with little accountability or followup) to try and suggest/promote improvements or changes to the code review process. Obviously, this does not scale well, and while we've generated a lot of discussion, we haven't really moved the yardsticks on any particular issue.

Zzolo's post identified a need for a regular code review process, and a means to simplify the tracking and review of issues which have arisen (influencing changes as needed). In addition, we need a way to assign accountability to various activities/improvements/suggestions/proposals. As opposed to a 'monthly' or 'quarterly' process review, why don't we handle this the true 'drupal' way?

I suggest the creation of a new 'Code Review Process' issue queue on the Drupal.org infrastructure. This will help to keep discussions on-topic, provide an archive of topics (along with their associated discussion and final decisions), allow for the assignment of accountabilities and responsibilities (through the 'assigned to' field), and simplify the process of going through the discussions to see what solutions have been proposed. It would also allow us a way to close off discussions, and not have to filter through their threads while looking for new posts on various topics.

This follows the established precedent of dedicated 'Documentation team', 'Drupal.org Webmasters', and 'Infrastructure' issue queues.

This would still need an aspect of 'assigned leadership' to help sort through conflicts and disagreements regarding various proposals ... while my intention isn't to create more work for the current git administrators, I'd be happy to give them the 'voice of reason' authority to fire proposals off to the "closed (won't fix)" bin or flag them for acceptance and implementation.

To facilitate a 'trial run' before committing a new queue to the d.o infrastructure, I've created a 'Drupal.org "Code Review" Process Review' sandbox project; and would encourage everyone to subscribe and throw up a few issues to evaluate how well this works. (Unless, of course, you feel that this is such an obvious idea that there's no need to trial it, in which case feel free to promote the sandbox to a full project ... I don't actually have that permission yet. :P )