Levels of Triage

This page is an effort to define the levels of Triage as they currently exist in the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Level 1 Triage

This level is, for the most part, taken care of by the Arsenal scripts that we use to automatically deal with incoming new bugs. However, there are several cases that require manual triage for those cases when the scripts fail or miss certain bugs. The following is the list of responsibilities for this level of triage:

• Review the bug to determine if all the data we need is there.
• Request missing information or further detail

• set tags as defined in Tagging

• Set the status to Incomplete if further information was requested or Triaged if all required data is present

Level 2 Triage

This level is where subsystem knowledge will begin coming into play. The responsibilities of this level are:

• Providing workaround tests to be performed by the original reporter.
• request subsystem specific logging commands and files as needed
• Review data that was requested in Level 1 triage and determine if more is needed.
• Adjust description or summary as needed to clarify bug's definition
• Determine if there are duplicates that can be marked for this bug or if it is a duplicate of another
• Adjust the status to Incomplete if further detail or workaround testing was requested or to Triaged if all required data is present
• Determine an initial priority to be used by the team during review.
• repeat any Level 1 or Level 2 triage steps as needed.

Level 3 triage

This is the most advanced level of triage and is the step just before it needs to move to an Ubuntu Kernel Engineer for further digging or investigation. The responsibilities for this level of triage are:

• Work with the reporter to file an upstream bug for their particular issue
• Work with Kernel Team Memebers to identify subsystem affected for difficult to identify 'kernel-uncat' bugs
• review proposed patches in bugs to determine if they are truly patches that should be reviewed for inclusion in the current development branch and bring them to the attention of the Ubuntu Kernel Team
• Prepare kernels in PPA for testing of proposed patches to ensure that they build cleanly and provide feedback on failed builds to the patch originator.
• Attend Monday Bug Calls to determine Priority bugs for the week
• Review the list of bugs provided by subsystem reviewers on Friday for the Monday meeting.