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Agent spec process #304

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Aug 11, 2020
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12 changes: 12 additions & 0 deletions .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/agents-discussion.md
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---
name: Agents discussion
about: \
Open a draft PR to change the specification to initiate a discussion.
If discussion is required before a spec change proposal can even be assembled, create an Agent discussion issue first.
labels: agents, discussion
---

<!--
Open a draft PR to change the specification to initiate a discussion.
If discussion is required before a spec change proposal can even be assembled, create an Agent discussion issue first.
-->
22 changes: 0 additions & 22 deletions .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/agents-poll.md

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83 changes: 83 additions & 0 deletions docs/agents/spec-process.md
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Every change that affects more than one agent should be initiated via a PR against the specification rather than creating an issue that describes the changes in its description.

## Process

1. Agents discussion issue \
Open a draft PR to change the specification to initiate a discussion.
If discussion is required before a spec change proposal can even be assembled, create an Agent discussion issue first.
Discussion issues should not have votes/agent checkboxes.
1. Draft PR \
It's fine if the first draft of the spec change even if details are unclear and need discussion.
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The PR should include which agents are affected by this change.
Specifically, it should always be clear whether the RUM agent is affected by this.
This doesn't have to be determined yet when creating the draft PR,
but it is required before marking the PR as `Ready for Review`.
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1. Approval by at least one other agent \
This makes sure the change makes sense for not just one agent.
This doesn't ping all agent teams yet,
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which only happens in the next step.
Of course,
every agent is more than welcome to contribute at any point in this process,
but they are not expected to actively keep track if it.
1. Ready for Review \
This automatically requests review from all agents and from PM due to the [`CODEOWNERS`](https://github.com/elastic/apm/tree/master/.github/CODEOWNERS) file.
After at least one more agent and one PM has approved, others have 1 week to veto by requesting changes.
If the proposed changes are likely to be problematic for a certain agent,
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an approval from that agent is mandatory.
1. Prioritization \
At any point in time,
but before merging the PR,
the priority should be determined.
That happens in collaboration with devs and leads.
It's recommended to do that sooner rather than later
so that we don't spend a lot of time discussing a feature that's not going to be prioritized.
As a result of the prioritization,
the PR gets assigned to a milestone,
reflecting the stack release version this feature should be implemented by all agents.
If some agents are not going to implement the change by that stack release version,
or if there are no immediate plans to implement the change at all,
a comment should be made on the PR.
1. PR can be merged by the author of the PR \
Three business days before merging, there should be a last call for objections.
1. The author of the PR creates an issue in each agent's repo \
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They make sure the issues are assigned to a stack release milestone,
based on the milestone of the spec PR.
The author of the PR adds a comment to the PR with a table that lists each agent and the link to the implementation issue.
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A template for this table can be found in the next section.
This makes it easier to see the current implementation state for each agent and makes it easy to verify that there's an issue for each agent.
Agent teams can still change the milestone if priorities shift.
However, they should let their team lead know.

## Agent issue table template

```
| Agent | Link to agent implementation issue |
| --------|------------------------------------|
| .NET |
| Go |
| Java |
| Node.js |
| PHP |
| Python |
| Ruby |
| RUM |
```

## Advantages

- Ensures we have an up-to-date [spec](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-steps-to-better-code/) for agents.
- Easier to keep track of what the current state of the proposal is.
- Comments to a specific sentence of the spec can be made inline,
just like in code reviews.
- If there are changes or amendments to a spec later on,
a PR to an existing spec is much cleaner than having to track down all preceding issues to find out what the current state is.
- Easier to get a new agent (in-house or community) started.

## Guiding principles

- Everyone in the team should be empowered to propose changes
- The process should be lightweight and painless
- Keep the noise low by notifying the right people at the right time and maturity stage of the proposal

If it turns out that this process is not accomplishing these goals then it's a bug,
and you should raise a PR to fix it :)