Scheduling

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Scheduling a Blueprint for UDS

Ubuntu Developer Summits (UDS) use the "summit" tool for scheduling sessions. This software requires us to create Launchpad Blueprints using a specific format. This page walks you through the steps required to get a session scheduled.

Scheduling a Session

You have two options to schedule a session. If you've already defined a blueprint that needs discussing you can register it. You can also create one from scratch.

Using an Existing Engineering Blueprint

If your blueprint can fit into a single session, this is the route to choose. After creating your blueprint you may select the "Propose for sprint" option when viewing the blueprint in Launchpad.

  • Proposing a blueprint for a session

Creating a "Scheduling Blueprint"

If your engineering blueprint is too big for a single session, you can break it up by using multiple "scheduling blueprints".

To create a scheduling blueprint, first view the blueprints scheduled for a Connect event under a link like:

For example, UDS-Q is located at: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/sprints/uds-q

You may register a new Blueprint by selecting the "Register a blueprint" link as shown here. Use the naming convention defined below:

  • Session Registration Link

Further information on this topic can be found at:

The video is old so ignore the beginning about the wiki and just pay attention to the part where Jorge talks about Launchpad.

Filling Out the Blueprint Fields

For

Pick the project fill in "ubuntu"

Name

The name is important as it determines how your session will appear in the scheduling tool at UDS, here are the track names:

consumer community design desktop foundations hardware security serverandcloud ubuntu-arm

You need to name your blueprint after the track name, and the title, and then the animal letter so that we can track it for this cycle:

hardware-q-kernel-decision serverandcloud-q-openstack-integration design-q-wallpapers foundations-q-python-transition

... and so on.

Title

This should be a human readable form of the name. Remember that your title will be displayed on the monitors, and need to be short and upfront, so make it easy to understand and put the information up front so that when the scheduler truncates your long title it makes sense.

Specification

Optional, but it can be a link to a page in this Wiki, but it's becoming popular to put your session notes from etherpad here, so:

http://pad.ubuntu.com/serverandcloud-p-openstack-integration

Don't worry, the system will autocreate your etherpad during UDS.

What Happens Next

After you submit the blueprint, it will wait for approval by a track lead. Once it has been approved it will show up on the summit schedule:

If it's been a few days and it's not on the schedule then ask your track lead to approve it. If they don't have it then it means you didn't submit it to UDS (see the video). Track leads will be approving specs on a regular basis, so if you don't see your sessions on the schedule it's up to YOU to bother the track lead.

Jono Bacon (Canonical) and Michael keep an eye on the incoming specs so if a track lead is particularly swamped we help keep the submissions going smoothly, but it helps tremendously when you check.

If anyone has any questions please contact Michael Hall.

Traceability

TODO document how this references the work defined from the roadmap.

Tips

Session Title

The title of the blueprint is important. We have screens setup at our events displaying the sessions for the day at various locations. For example:

A long title gets truncated. In your browser, you can hover and get the full title. However, you can only the see the truncated text on the screens at the event. Therefore, it becomes important to make sure the most important words show up near the beginning of your title.

In the example link above we had a session titled "Refining the blueprint page and associated content". This was specific to Linaro, but we had a few people show up to the session because they didn't notice the Linaro icon and thought the session was about changing blueprints in general. Another example of sessions were for Android. Some of these had titles that ended with " for Android". This text was truncated, so people walking by could mistakenly think the session was about all of Linaro.

Whiteboard

The whiteboard will most likely get used to collect notes for a session. This creates a small dilemma when you need to put work items in and make it a real "engineering blueprint". The recommended approach to dealing with this is to copy the contents of the notes from the whiteboard and paste them into the blueprints specification in the Wiki.

Managing Proposals (for Track Leads)

The track leads are responsible for accepting or rejecting proposals. When you go to a page like:

You should see a sentence before the footer like:

  • You can show topics that have been declined and since you are a driver of Linaro Connect Q4.11 you can also accept sessions or topics that have been proposed.

All the track leads should have this authority. If you don't, you'll need to request membership to:

The accept/reject interface is self-explanatory. Since UDS is part of ubuntu itself, the uds-organizers team is managed by the tech board, and they approve membership.

  • Its a good idea to talk to the track lead before drafting a proposal and see if they like the idea.
  • If you like a proposal but want some updates to it, don't reject it. Its easier to tell the person to make the updates and then check back and accept it.

Managing the Summit Scheduler

Track leads can manage the scheduling of time slots from the summit site. For example:

Key Points:

  • once logged in, track leads should be able to manually drag-and-drop sessions to different time slots.
  • once a session has been manually updated, the scheduler will no longer handle it when doing automatic rescheduling work.
  • once UDS/Connect starts, only Arwen/Marianna have the ability to make updates. This is to prevent people from making concurrent changes that were tripping up the scheduler. So go to the event desk and ask them for help.


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