All documentation pertaining to how developers can contribute to NDS Labs.

New to NDS Labs?

Start here: New Developer Workflow

Overview

• Git Workflows: Forking workflow with feature branches
  1. Fork repo (if applicable)
     • Press "Fork" in GitHub UI
  2. Clone repo to make changes locally (if applicable)
     
     • git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/ndslabs.git
     • git remote add upstream https://github.com/nds-org/ndslabs.git
  3. Ensure correct branch and sync with upstream before making additional changes
     • git checkout master
     • git pull upstream master
  4. Create a branch named after the Story (for example  NDS-174 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
     • git checkout -b NDS-174
  5. Stage any modified files for commit
     • git add path/to/modified/file.ext
  6. Commit any modifications to your local branch with a comment
     • git commit -m "A comment about this commit"
  7. Push any local commits back up to your remote branch (your forked repo)
     • git push origin NDS-174
  8. When you are satisfied with your changes, create a Pull Request
     • Press "Pull Request" in GitHub UI
     • Scroll down and click on the "Files Changed" tab to briefly review your own Pull Request
       • Ensure that all changes made on this branch were intentional
     • Name your Pull Request after the Story / branch (i.e. "NDS-174: User can access console of running service via CLI") 
     • Enter a short description of any modifications, additions, or removals from the codebase
       • If applicable, include a Test Case that the reviewer should run before merging the Pull Request
     • Click "Create Pull Request"
• Docker Workflows: Upload any necessary test images to Docker Hub
  1. Build test image
     • docker build -t ndslabs/apiserver:dev .
  2. Tag test image with Story id (i.e. NDS-174)
     • docker tag ndslabs/apiserver:dev ndslabs/apiserver:NDS-174
  3. Push test image to Docker Hub
     
     • docker push ndslabs/apiserver:NDS-174
• Kubernetes Workflows: Sometimes used in testing new services or the API server

JIRA Workflows

To handle issue and project tracking we use JIRA, which currently offers several different Issue Types when creating new tickets.

The expected usage of each Issue Type is outlined briefly in the workflows below:

Addition Workflows

Issue Types Used:

• Wish / New Feature: a high-level non-technical description of desired business logic
• Requirements: a "discussion" ticket describing a new feature that needs more of its technical description fleshed out
• Epic: a high-level technical description of desired software functionality or infrastructure containing multiple Story tickets
  
  • Note: Epic issues do not get explicitly added to Sprint
• Story: a use case describing an example usage of a small piece of newly desired functionality

Possible Stages:

1. A New Feature or Wish ticket is filed describing the new feature at a high-level without mandating any particular technical specifications
2. A Requirements ticket is created if we do not have enough information to break the feature down into small pieces of technical work
3. A Story ticket is filed from the information resulting from the Requirements discussion
   
   1. If multiple Story tickets encompass the work needed, these tickets are grouped under an over-arching Epic ticket

New Feature / Wish Workflow

When a Wish or New Feature ticket is in the Active Sprint:

1. The ticket is marked IN PROGRESS and assigned to a developer, who conducts the meeting
2. The feature is broken down into a digestable number of enumerated use cases
3. If one or more use cases require more detail, a Requirements ticket is filed
4. The use cases are filed as Story tickets and associated to an Epic
5. The resulting Story tickets are then discussed at the next Sprint Planning meeting

Deliverables:

• New tickets describing the next steps necessary to enable the feature described

Requirements Workflow

When a Requirements ticket is in the Active Sprint:

1. The ticket is marked IN PROGRESS and assigned to a developer, who conducts the meeting
2. A meeting is created in Outlook to contact interested parties (i.e. NDS Labs Dev team, Nebula team, other NDS-affiliated software teams, etc.)
   1. The requirements are discussed with the development team and any interested parties
   2. Any information resulting from the discussion is filed into a Confluence wiki page
   3. The information from the Confluence page generates use cases
   4. If applicable, a new Epic is created to encompass the use cases presented
3. The use cases are filed as Story tickets and associated to an Epic
4. The ticket is marked IN REVIEW and assigned to another team member for review
   1. The reviewer may make any changes or comments that they desire and discuss with the team
5. The ticket is marked RESOLVED or CLOSED
6. The resulting Epic / Story tickets are then discussed at the next Sprint Planning meeting

Deliverables:

• New Epic / Story tickets describing the steps necessary to enable the use cases described

Story Workflow

When a Story ticket is in the Active Sprint:

1. The ticket is marked IN PROGRESS and assigned to a developer (referred to hereafter as "the developer")
2. The developer does the work necessary to enable the use case described in the ticket
   1. Follow the general development workflows defined above
3. Comment on the Story with links to any deliverables that should be reviewed / tested
4. The ticket is marked IN REVIEW and assigned to a tester (referred to hereafter as "the tester")
5. The tester reviews the deliverables of the Story:
   1. Review any related Pull Requests
   2. Review any Test Cases / Documentation provided
   3. Review any new tickets resulting from the work done
   4. Pull and run any new Docker images against the Test Cases provided
6. The tester selects Review Accepted and the ticket is marked as RESOLVED
7. The tester merges any outstanding Pull Requests related to this ticket
8. The developer switches back to their master branch and syncs with the new changes
9. If applicable, the developer builds and pushes a new "latest" Docker image for the API / UI incorporating the new changes
10. The developer selects CLOSE TICKET and the ticket is marked as CLOSED

Deliverables:

• Pull Request(s) to GitHub
• New Image(s) / Tag(s) in Docker Hub
• Test Case(s) demonstrating the use case fulfilled by the story
• Documentation describing the technical aspects of the solution

Modification Workflows

Improvement Workflow

Issue Types Used:

• Improvement: a suggestion to utilize new techniques or technologies to improve overall performance or maintainability

Bug Workflow

Issue Types Used:

• Bug: a previously completed use case or edge case that is malfunctioning according to its defined behavior

Miscellaneous Workflows

Task Workflow

Issue Types Used:

• Task: work that is not driven by a new use case containing zero or more Sub-Issue tickets (i.e. collaboration with other teams)
  • Technical Task: a small piece of technical work that is not driven by a new use case
  • Sub-Task: a small piece of outreach or non-technical work / discussion that is not driven by a new use case

Used to Track:

1. events requiring special attention (i.e. hackathon, developer tutorial, etc.)

Comment Workflow

Issue Types Used:

• Comment: track miscellaneous information / feedback / requests that do not match other issue types:

Used to Track:

1. new sites / groups / contacts wishing to utilize the NDS Labs platform (i.e. Odum, TACC, SDSC, etc.)
2. similar technologies that we might look at for reference (i.e. JujuCharms, ProfitBricks, etc.)
3. new or existing technologies that might be leveraged to further NDS Labs

Request Workflow

Issue Types Used:

• Processing Request: track the creation of new entities in production instance of NDS Labs

Used To Track:

1. projects (via Account Creation Workflow)
2. service specs (via Pull Requests made to ndslabs-specs)