Background

Topics have been introduced as a way of tracking multiple related blueprints that can span across different teams. Please see status.ubuntu.com for some current examples and overview information about the site.

Ideally before a topic is set up, there should be 2 or more related blueprints involved.

The mechanism used to implement topic's is by creating what can be considered a meta-blueprint, with a specific syntax.

Setting up a topic

1. Create a new blueprint at: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/$RELEASE (where $RELEASE is oneiric, for example)

2. When filling out the blueprint template

   • Name: "topic-$RELEASE-" needs to start the name of the meta-blueprint being created. For example, "topic-oneiric-desktop-kubuntu"

   • Title: Fill in a 1 line description of what the subject is that this "topic" is covering.

   • Summary: Need to provide further description on what is included in this blueprint

   • Assignee: Fill in person or team who will be supervising

   • Drafter: Fill in person who is creating this topic blueprint

   • Approver: Fill in person who will be responsible for this topic, and has associated approval rights. If there is no logical candidate, please contact the release manager help locate one.

   • Definition Status: Mark this as drafting

   • Make sure to check Propose for series goal - this is important.

3. Once the topic blueprint has been created
   • DO NOT: fill in the whiteboard, link bugs, or put any content into it other than dependencies to other blueprints.
   • DO: use the dependency button at the bottom of the page to link other blueprints to it.
   • each blueprint included as a dependency must have:

     • properly formatted work items.

     • be approved for the series
   • when you are done adding blueprints to the topic, make sure the topic blueprint is marked "approved for the series" and "definition status" is set to "Approved" by the approver.
4. Once the topic blueprint is marked approved, and it has linked at least one blueprint, it should show up on the status.ubuntu.com overview page.

Modifying what is being tracked in a topic

• If its necessary to add/delete blueprints from a topic, please go to the original topic blueprint, and use the add or delete buttons at the bottom of the blueprint.

• If its necessary to change the trend line, this must be done in the launchpad config file. (for oneiric see: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~wi-tracker-configurators/launchpad-work-items-tracker/ubuntu-config/view/head:/config/ubuntu-oneiric.cfg )