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BugSquad Mentorship Program

The Bug Squad's mentorship program has been created for people that would like to get involved in bug triaging, but don't know how to. If you apply for mentorship, a mentor will be assigned to you to guide your first steps in the wonderful world of working with bugs.

What is 'triaging'?

In a hospital, triage happens the instant a patient arrives: his or her vital signs are checked, his or her status assessed, and (s)he gets sorted in amongst all the other patients waiting for treatment.

Bug triage is a lot like that as we assess bugs to determine whether or not they have enough information to be worked on, and assign a priority to them as soon as possible. Though without any risk of a death, fortunately.

The process itself is thoroughly explained at Bugs/HowToTriage. Make sure you read that wiki page well before starting to work on bugs!

How To Request a Mentor

If you're new to the BugSquad and want to request a mentor you need to:

1. Sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. (Requirement)

2. Add your IRC-nickname, your Ubuntu Wiki-page and your timezone to your Launchpad profile, this makes it easier
3. Set up your Ubuntu Wiki-page, and add the following information to it:
   • A brief introduction of yourself;
   • Your area of interest (e.g.: audio, kernel, desktop, networking, etc), or none if you're still unsure
   • Your timezone.
   • Your availability

4. As a recommendation you might want to read the HowToTriage, your mentor will help you if you have any doubts regarding the processes there.

5. Finally, request membership on the bugsquad-mentorship group on Launchpad

The mentorship admins will review your request and assign you to a suitable mentor, who will contact you shortly after the assignment.

How To Become a Mentor

All members of the Ubuntu Bug Control team can be mentors; the only requirement is that they need to know how the community operates and be familiar with the resources. That is more important than being very experienced in the area your students are going to work.

The responsibilities of the mentors are

• Guide the student through the triaging how-to in order to clarify the process;

• Introduce the student to the general triage work-flow and the life-cycle of a bug;

• Encourage the student to join the official channels of communication:

  • The Ubuntu Bug Squad mailing list;

  • The IRC-channel: #ubuntu-bugs;

• Be present themselves in the #ubuntu-bugs IRC-channel;

• Make the student familiar with the Bug Squad's activities:

  • The Ubuntu Bug Days;

  • The Ubuntu Bug Squad meetings;

  • The UbuntuOpenWeek and the UbuntuDeveloperWeek;

  • The QA Team meetings;

• Encourage specialisation, e.g. via Adopt-a-Package;

• Encourage students to help with Testing;

• Send Monthly updates on the students' progress to the bugsquad-mentorship maling list or be present once a month at the weekly Ubuntu Bug Squad meetings.

If you want to become a mentor, please send an email to <ubuntu-bugcontrol@lists.launchpad.net> with the subject: I Want to Become a Mentor - <<Your Name>> and include:

• Your expertise, e.g. desktop, kernel, X.org, Mozilla, KDE, GNOME;
• Your Launchpad username;
• The times you're available, in UTC.

Student assignment

The admins of the mentorship program will answer you shortly and — if you're accepted — add you to the list of available mentors and to the bugsquad-mentorship team on Launchpad.

When you've been accepted as a mentor the admins will assign a student to you. You'll be warned and asked to make the first contact with your new student. You could use the stock mail at BugSquad/Mentors/Stock for this, that way you are sure you provide the necessary information.

It's up to you how you mentor the students, but generally the goal is to make the students ready for Ubuntu Bug Control membership.

Current mentors

This is the list of the current Bug Squad mentors and their students. This table is looked after by the mentorship admins, but if you see any error in the information listed here, feel free to correct it. However, please do not add new mentors to this list on your own initiative.