Release Manager Expectations

Istio Release Management Efforts

Qualifications for Release Managers

• A member of the istio community and active for the last 3 months
• Appointed by TOC
• At least one release manager for each version needs to meet requirements for access to PSWG info in case of vulnerabilities
• Process for volunteering for release management
  • Privately contact a member of the TOC to volunteer or nominate yourself during public TOC meetings

The role of release manager for a release lasts a total of about 9 months. This can be divided up into:

• Activities that take place before the initial release.
• Activities that take place during the 3 month period while a release is in active maintenance.
• Activities that take place during the 4.5 months after active maintenance and End-of-Life.

Initial Release

• Cutting branches: 8 to 16 hours divided between all release managers. Automation has been added to make this process easier, but will probably take around half a day. However, a lot of the time is waiting for automated steps to complete as opposed to being directly involved.
• Testing days: 8 to 16 hours divided between all release managers spread over two weeks in order to orchestrate the testing events. This does not include any time that the release managers additionally devote to picking up and testing individual tests.
  • Spreadsheets
  • Prioritization
  • Chasing people to get things done
• Prioritization of issues in step with work groups
• Release management meetings: 45 minutes to 1 hour every week for each release manager. Increases as the release gets closer.
• Release notes/upgrade notes for point release: 1 week for of the release managers as well as reviewing from other release managers
  • Code reviews from docs team as well as work group leads
  • Generation of release notes using automated tooling
  • Updating release notes to make them more readable
• Announcement of release on Twitter/Discuss/Slack: 5 minutes for one release manager for Discuss/Slack. For Twitter, reach out to someone with access.

After Initial release

• This lasts for 7.5 months of time during which point releases come out on approximately a 3 week cycle.
• During three of these months, the release manager is working on the latest release. During this, this is the primary release and all fixes get cherry-picked from master here.
• After 3 months, the next release of Istio comes out and there are 4.5 more months of support before this release goes end of life.
• Minor release every 3 weeks
  • Release notes: 1 hour for a single release manager
  • Creating releases: 8 hours spread across all release managers. Most of this is automated (i.e. update proxy and then wait for tests to complete, trigger a build and wait for tests to complete)
  • 48 hour testing: this involves requesting those who run the tests to trigger the tests and waiting for 48 hours. There is very little needed from a release manager other than checking in to make sure everything is working well
  • Handle vulnerability fix integration in step with product security work group -- approximately 3 patch releases -- for private security releases, release managers are responsible for coordinating a flush release to get all fixes before the security fix out as well as ensuring they don’t accept patches until the release is out. Most of the additional release related work is taken care of by the security fix lead although the release managers are expected to review release notes, build pull requests, and other related content. The flush release takes about the same amount of time as a regular release.

Ongoing for all releases

• Watching for release blockers: part of the code review process. Wouldn’t say it needs additional time.
• Code reviews/deciding whether to accept cherry picks: about an hour per day for each release manager. Ramps up just before the initial release. Ramps down to an hour per week towards the end of life for a release
• Work group leads meeting: half an hour per release manager every week
• Technical Oversight Committee meetings: one hour per release manager per week

End of Life for Release

• End Of Life for release: 8 hours