Enhancing the testing program

Problem

The current testing program does not work well. How can we improve it to make it run smoothly?

New people usually crave one app. Some people work towards fixing things and others simply do not try too hard (filing bugs or researching). Some may be too busy, but they still want to help.

That could be due people just are impatient and do not want to try the app or it is difficult to contribute back. This can cause a issue of a application being released to early with bugs.

Known Issues

• Not easy for users to see what bugs there are for a given app
• Bugs have to be manually linked by the testmasters, in order for the app packager and other interested people to be notified

Ideas

• A "watch" button to an app to get notifications on the app progress/issues/news
• A better way to know the app status than currently color coding (Re: There needs to be known stages for that the application needs to go though and what states the application is in should also be noted)
• A link to the upstream application (DONE - maybe make it more visible?)
• A Link to the list of known bugs
• A link on how to report a bug for the application
• A link to the place of discussion of the application (we do have some support for this - however, it's hard to create a new forum)

If you develop a wiki page for a policy please update this wiki with the link

• Policy on what the application information page on the mainpage should contain.

• Policy on what tests a application must past to get included.

• Policy of of general testing procedures for most application.

• I know A lot of people hate policy. However there MUST to be policy for testing. There is a reason for ISO Certification. People like checklists if they don't have a checklist they do not know what to do. Each application should have a checklist of things actions someone needs to preform to make sure the application works.

• Furthermore said checklist MUST have a template for all apps on recommended things to include.

• Better use of the bug system. The bug system is great however we need to use it better. Each application should have at least its own category if not it's own subproject depending on the size and complexity of the application. This is so reports can be run on a specific application.

• Every application must have a place to discuss the application.

There needs to be a good template for applications on the wiki.

The template MUST including the following information.

• The name of the application
• The Description of the application
• The Features of the application.
• The Status of the application. (Current Version and State ( Eg. HDA-ized app)
• Information on how to install the application.
• Information on how to uninstall the application.
• Information on how to configure the application.
• A link to the checklist for testing the application. This should be simple and easy to follow.
• A link to known bugs. (If every bug has it's own category if we can run a report on that category a link to that would be the best).
• Link to Upstream bug reporting system or support. Also we must include exception on what should not be forwarded upstream.