Kanban Process for Issue Tracking

Kanban stages

TriBITS uses a Kanban process with Github Issue tracking and Pull Request (PR) management using a TriBITS GitHub Project board.

The Kanban stages for TriBITS GitHub Issues (and PRs) are:

Backlog: Every issue not in one of the below stages
ToDo: Items of higher priority in the backlog that could be ready to work soon.
Selected: Items scoped and ready to be worked when there is available capacity
In Progress: Issues we are actively being worked (or have already started to be worked)
In Review: Issues that are complete but need to be reviewed or are in review
Done: Issues have been completed and are providing real value to the customer

NOTES:

All new Issues are automatically considered in the "Backlog" and are not shown on the Kanban boards.
Even issues that are stalled can be listed "In Progress".
Issues and Pull Requests (PR) closed without being completed/merged must be marked with the label resolution: wontfix or resolution: invalid and should be removed from the Kanban boards Done column. Also, amending the title with WONTFIX: or INVALID: can also help to make clear the Issue/PR was not worked/resolved.

The intended Kanban process lifecycle for a TriBITS GitHub Issue is as follows (consistent with TriBITS/CONTRIBUTING.md):

Someone creates a new Issue as a suggestion (and it automatically is placed in the Backlog).
The Product Owner then takes the Issue and reviews it in the Backlog and comments on it (or closes it if justified).
Issues are regularly are moved into "ToDo" or "Selected" when they are high enough priority and are ready to be worked. (We should not cram a bunch of stuff into "Selected". We should keep that list short so that it is clear what to work on next.)
When adequate capacity is freed up, an Issue is moved from "Selected" to "In Progress" by the developer and it is actively worked.
Issues "In Progress" should be worked as quickly as possible to get them done.
Once an Issue "In Progress" is ready, it is moved into "In Review" so it can be reviewed by someone. (The code related to this issue should be submitted on a branch as a pull request to allow the review.)
Once the Issue (and associated pull request) is independently reviewed, then the branch is merged and pushed (if the Issue is for a code change) and the Issue may be closed (if the PR completed resolved the issue).

That is the basic Kanban Issue process in a nutshell. The process details are given in TriBITS/CONTRIBUTING.md.

The Kanban lifecycle process fopr Pull Requests (PRs) follows a reduced number of Kanban stages:

A new Pull Request is automatically added to the In Progress stage.
GitHub Actions testing is performed on each push to the PR branch with results displayed on CDash.
When the PR is ready to be reviewed, it is moved to the In Review stage and reviewers are assigned.
Once the PR has been reviewed and accepted, it is merged (and the associated topic branch is merged to the main development branch).

There are no known mechanisms where TriBITS software could cause a vulnerability. But if a vulnerability is suspected to be caused by TriBITS, please directly contact the TriBITS Maintainer @bartlettroscoe with the details. ^{[vulnerability_reports]}