Revision as of 11:21, 12 November 2010

Introduction

This document is to answer frequently asked questions about using the Simultaneous Release Tracker Tool at the Eclipse Foundation Portal.

What does "track with parent" mean?

This is simply a grouping mechanism. For some projects, such as Eclipse or Web Tools Platform, the sub-projects of the Top Level Project are all tightly knit and would be very uniform in their responses, so they are grouped for simplicity, and just one form is filled out for them all. Other Projects, such as Tools, are very heterogeneous and would likely never be grouped. Others, such as Modeling, is somewhere in between and might even group sub-sub-projects to a sub-project, but not all of them to Top Level Project. The PMC and Project Leads do the grouping typically done once per development cycle, near the beginning of the cycle, and would be expect to stay relatively consistent.

Once grouped, the sub-projects still show up, but are not editable (or, "trackable").

If projects are grouped for tracking, does their data "roll up" to the parent?

No. Any existing data will (effectively) be lost. The intent is just to provide less forms to fill out, not to process any data.

What is an 'exception'?

There is an 'exception' check-box (and edit area) for each item. We don't expect that many exceptions, its just easier to be prepared.

These 'exceptions' are just a way to document the end-result of the Planning Council Exception process -- they are not a way to request an exception. In many cases, it may be the Planning Council representative for a PMC that fills in this section, since they are the ones that have to bring it forward for an exception, they will know where the results are documented (such as meeting minutes, or planning council mailing list).