How does this work?

Our current focus is on confirming issues that are marked with the flags “unconfirmed” and “defect”. Our goal is to respond to new issues posted by users as soon as possible as well as clear out the backlog of unconfirmed issues that currently resides in the IssueTracker database. 

However, we recognize that there is a lot more to Quality Assurance (QA) than just reviewing and isolating issues. In the future, OOo QA will involve testing documentation and developing test software. If you are super enthusiastic, feel free to start working on some basic demonstrations of test cases, regression tests, QA specification documentation or any other idea you think would be valuable to improving the quality of OOo. 

Every little bit of contribution counts and is invaluable. For example, if we have 100 interested volunteers, and they all work on one issue per day, we would be able to cover 100 issues per day. As insignificant as that may seem when compared to the number of issues that need review, it is positive progress that is essential to keep this project moving forward. 

How can I help?

It's really easy! Just register as an OpenOffice.org user. You can do so here .

In the simplest case, just help gather enough information for each issue:

1. Make sure the issue has not been already reported. In technical terms, make sure it is not a duplicate issue. A quick incomplete reference can be found in the QA Documentation section. Here is the link. You can always search IZ as well.

2. Reproducible.

3. Step by step instructions to recreate the problem are included.

4. A small simple file containing only the contents required to reproduce the problem.

All this requires is the addition of comments to the issue, requesting addition information or clarification from the reporter of the problem. No addition permissions are required. No firm commitment from you is needed. Just log into IZ ( we are assuming you are a registered user of OpenOffice.org ) when you have the time and work on an issue that has been reported within the last week.

Remember to sign up as a member of the OOo QA project so that you receive the recognition that you deserve. It is also strongly recommended that you subscribe to the OOo QA dev mailing list. You can subscribe to this mailing list here QA - Dev Mailing List .

However, if you are willing to make more of a commitment and take on more challenges consider the following:

1. Try to review and add comments to 10 issues. We want you to feel comfortable working with IZ as well start your journey to becoming a guru with OpenOffice.org.

2. Assuming you are already a registered user of OpenOffice.org, sign up as a member of the QA project.

3. Subscribe to the QA dev mailing list. You can do so here QA - Dev Mailing List .

4. Send a request to the qa@openoffice.apache.org mailing list, asking for the privileges to change any part of an issue. Please use the subject line "Volunteer Privileges - <Your OpenOffice.org Userid Here>" You also might want to use this opportunity to introduce yourself to the other team members.

5. Make sure you have the most current version of OpenOffice.org installed.
   If possible, check cases using the latest developer build.

6. Query for issues based on the priority guideline. You can view the priority guideline here.

7. For each issue you review, make sure it follows the following guidelines:

   1. Make sure the issue has not been already reported. In technical terms, make sure it is not a duplicate issue. A quick incomplete reference can be found in the QA Documentation section. Here is the link . You can always search IZ as well.

   2. Reproducible.

   3. Step by step instructions to reproduce the issue is included.

   4. A small simple file containing only the contents required to reproduce the problem.

8. Set the keyword "oooqa" in every bug you've edited, even if you've only added a comment. This keyword has been introduced to be able to query the issues that have been confirmed or just edited by you.

9. Make sure you list the operating system and version of OpenOffice.org that you used to duplicate and verify the problem listed in the issue. For example:
   Duplicated on Win NT 4.0 SP6a, OOo 643
   or
   Duplicated on RedHat 8.0, RedHat RPM OOo 1.0.1

10. You can always add any extra comments you feel necessary to clearly define the problem for the developers.

11. Ideally, you will isolate the true cause of the problem listed in the issue.

12. Commit the issue. Choose the option “Confirm issue (change status to NEW)”.

The issue will now show up as a "new" issue to one of those persons who have been defined as default owner of the corresponding module and who will then review the issue and dispatch it to the responsible developer. 

 

Document maintained proudly using OpenOffice.org! 

Last updated on $Date: 2007/02/23 16:27:27 $