Kenneth thinks that TWiki Has Lost Its Customer Focus

Cairo was a relatively stable program. It had a few bugs which you could fix with a couple of patches but overall it was stable.

TWiki 4.0 (Dakar) was a major rewrite and also a release with quite many bugs. But the community was fast at reacting with 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4.

TWiki 4.1.0 (Edinburgh) was also followed up by 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.

With 4.2.0 we got again some major code refactorings. And as always bugs surfaced. But this time the commitment to fixing bugs seems at an all time low. And it is not because people do not have time. Codev is glowing with ideas of major refactorings and new features. And plugins are being updated. But the core code is stalled and the list of urgent bugs is growing and I cannot get 4.2.1 to a stable state where I can release it even though the list of urgent bugs is not larger than we could fix it all in a few days.

And lately some of the most active developers have stopped participating at the release meetings meaning that we cannot discuss and help each other with the bug fixing and people's feature proposals for 5.0 are not getting the attention they deserve.

Is there an interest in getting 4.2.1 released?

Is there an interest in serving our users? Or is it the idea that our users should be punished because a couple of people cannot pick up the phone and get some petty little disagreements settled?

Why should new users install TWiki? Why should anyone buy services from any of the companies or consultants associated with TWiki?

Frustrated words from a very disillusioned release manager.

Comments

FranzJosefGigler - 29 Apr 2008:

Don't be frustrated Kenneth, look at EnginesAsContribs as an example that core isn't stalled at all. But of course you're right that 4.2.1 should be released soon.

SvenDowideit - 29 Apr 2008:

when I released Cairo, there were exactly the same complaints that there were too many re-written bits. it also took several patch releases before there were enough users to report and iron out the bugs. Diference there, is we have a bug tracking system, and very few people that fix bugs they report.

As the -other- release manager, I think you are not taking enough information into account.

KennethLavrsen - 30 Apr 2008:

Franz - yes lots of energy on the EnginesAsContribs. And very little energy on fixing the short list of bugs marked "Urgent" in the bugs web. People are doing the "fun" things only and forgetting the customers that struggle with the current release and the new bugs that were introduced in it.

The issues are

• 4.2.0 is not followed up by a much needed 4.2.1
• Release meeting process is not working when people do not participate

MichaelCorbett - 12 May 2008:

Dirty Washing? Should we really be airing issues like this on the TWiki blog? If I was a manager in the process of checking out TWiki whilst evaluating which wiki to use in my company, this sort of talk would really put me off TWiki since it makes it sound like a dead project. Which of course it is not.

Could we please hang out our dirty washing "inside" TWikiDotOrg? ? We've got a nice big - albeit slightly cluttered - airing room in the shape of Codev.

SvenDowideit - 12 May 2008:

Listening to my customers that are also 'TWiki' Customers, I get the feeling that TWiki has not lost its customer focus. They are thrilled that they can get access to the features made available through the refactorings, and so far, I've been quite busy making their desires into reality.

Over the last months, I've fixed their most urgent bugs in 4.2.0, and the result of that can be seen in the statistics on AllOutStandingItems.

We all need to prioritize, but complaining that other people's priorities are not identical to yours, are not a positive way forward.