[opensource-dev] jira labels

Opensource Obscure opensourceobscure at gmail.com
Tue Mar 29 04:03:33 PDT 2011


On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:12, Boroondas Gupte
<sllists at boroon.dasgupta.ch> wrote:
> Hi OO,
>
> I hope you don't mind me taking this to the list, as it might be of general
> interest.
>
> On 03/29/2011 09:42 AM, Opensource Obscure wrote:
>
> Hello Boroondas,
> I see you removed 3 labels from
> https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-15259 while
> adding "needs-design".
>
> Not a problem, but I need to understand *why* you did that.
> I'm often attaching labels to JIRA issues these days
> (I find them useful), and maybe I'm doing it wrong.
> Maybe we have a sort of policy about labels and I missed it?
>
> When you edit an issue, you see below the "Labels" field the text
>
> For purposes of keeping the tag space clean, PLEASE ONLY USE APPROVED TAGS.
>
> so I guess we should not invent new label names without prior approval.
> Unfortunately, this advice isn't visible in the normal (non-Edit) view of
> the issue, although that too allows to add or remove labels.
>
> If I remember correctly (can't find the transcript right now), I once asked
> Oz' at an OH, whether there was a public list of approved labels and their
> meanings. I think Oz said there wasn't and that we should not add labels if
> we weren't sure of their meaning.
>
> Googling, I found a Daily Scrum transcript mentioning the needs-design label
> from which it seems like I, too, have used that label wrongly (as the issue
> isn't approved, yet), so I've removed that label again.
>
> Cheers,
> Boroondas
>

Thanks Boroondas.

I understand I sort of abused labels since I didn't follow the "approved
tags" warning...I'm available to remove all the labels I added, if this
is needed. Please let me know. Sorry if this created confusion.

I already pointed out (well, it's nothing new) that finding issues in JIRA
can be quite hard. I find labels could be very useful to *browse* through
the thousands of JIRA issues.
They're more flexible than other criteria (Components, Projects...)
and they may be even easier to understand/use for the casual user.

I hope we can define more precisely how to use labels so that their
use makes sense.

I propose that a list of useful labels is defined and then (if possible)
the ability for common users to add new labels is removed. Abuse
(in goodfaith or not) will continue if users just can add new labels.

I'm available to help compiling such a list of labels.
After a "strategy" is defined, I would also be available to add labels
to appropriate issues.

As a non-developer willing to help, I suppose this would fit my skills
better than other contribution activities.

-- 
Opensource Obscure
http://twitter.com/oobscure - http://opensourceobscure.com/lol


More information about the opensource-dev mailing list