Triage and nodejs/help improvements

[bmuenzenmeyer]

At the Node.js Collab Summit this September, I presented on Node.js Triage improvements, with an emphasis on the nodejs/help respository

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GLnp-3m7OKRhPo1zhwbcEvDEHF1_DYSPuB3xxxRFUQw/edit?usp=sharing

[bmuenzenmeyer]

capture some notes:

https://github.com/nodejs/help

• refer to https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/master/Triager-Guide.md from express
• grow the size of the triage team
• meet regularly as triagers
  • build community among ourselves
  • group-triage the backlog

[sheplu]

also we can check about some automation based on github action

• close stuff ?
• generate list of issues to review / check
• ....

[darcyclarke]

For reference, here's the npm team's triage process/checklist for reference: https://github.com/npm/cli/wiki/Bug-Triaging (this was very helpful to us to quickly walk through the various states of triaging an issue)

[sheplu]

@bmuenzenmeyer do we want to plan / organize something to grow the team and bring some automatization around it ? if I remember correctly we also discussed that with @aduh95 and @mhdawson

[bmuenzenmeyer]

yes - for sure. I need to dedicate a few moments into putting these thoughts into a plan. I am very happy to see you are still interested.

[sheplu]

If you want we can work on that together and try to schedule something during the week / or just async on a gdoc ?

[bmuenzenmeyer]

Proposed Work

from our collaborative session

Make stale-bot config in nodejs/help more aggressive

Solves: 650+ open issues on https://github.com/nodejs/help, rewards continued engagement, reduces noise for triagers and maintainers, displays a well maintained projects (fear of project with a lot of issues)

Potential actions:

• Change staleness period to a value such as 3 months
• https://github.com/nodejs/help/blob/main/.github/workflows/close-stale-issues.yml#L28-L29

** PRs**

• Decrease stalebot interval per collab summit discussion help#4270

Questions:
Should we have multiple rules based on the state of the PR or maybe categories ?

Create a triage guide

Solves: Help triages methodically approach problems

Potential actions:

• Refer to https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/master/Triager-Guide.md
• Refer to https://github.com/npm/cli/wiki/Bug-Triaging
• Create guidance specific to Node.js concerns from the above resources

Meet regularly as a triage group

Solves: Build community, help one another, allow better collaboration

Potential actions:

• Find regular cadence, add to Node.js calendar (Fridays were mentioned)
  • https://github.com/nodejs/admin#nodejs-project-calendar
• Group review/mob on a subset of tickets
• Can have a zoom meeting every two weeks (?) And maybe on an alternate timeline

Clean up / Solicit for new triagers

Solves: Get accurate accounting of triagers. Find new ones. Build an active community.

Potential actions:

• Implement an inactive triager check, similar to https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/766198b9e17c2a53713cc0dc127d62faa39ef560/tools/find-inactive-collaborators.mjs
• Find more triagers online, evangelize this work as a good entrypoint to the project
• Advertise our collaborative triage sessions