Bug Smash Initiative 3-year update

The Bug Smash community initiative started in May 2020 with the goal of reducing the number of open bugs against Drupal core.

Following advice from Gábor Hojtsy that ‘an initiative should have an exit strategy’, the initiative’s definition of done was a 5% reduction in bugs in Drupal core.

Over the past three years, we’ve smashed this goal and passed our definition of done with a 27% reduction in bugs! 

Next steps

So the question is – where to next for the initiative? We’ve discussed this in our fortnightly meetings and see two paths forward:

• We announce the initiative goals are complete and wind up our operations

• We reframe our goals and start again.

Let’s explore what those two look like.

Option 1: Winding up the initiative

This option may seem drastic, especially given there are still bugs in core. This wouldn’t mean we’d stop trying to fix them or that we’d stop working together as a collective. It would just mean we would wind up the formal administrative tasks that go with an initiative, such as regular meetings and minutes and our twice-daily triage goal. 

Winding up the initiative doesn’t mean that the  #bugsmash slack channel or the BugSmash table at sprints would cease to exist. Nor does it mean the like-minded folks who’ve worked together in the initiative would cease collaborating. 

It just means we’d drop the formal parts of the initiative and revert back to being a loose collective with a shared goal.

Option 2: Reframing our goals

This option would allow us to reset our goals and decide on our focus for the next couple of years. We need to ask ourselves if we still have the same passion AND if we think we can make as much progress as fast as we did.

There is much less low-hanging fruit than when the initiative started. This means that many of the remaining bugs are difficult to fix. This can have an impact on morale and participation. Lately, our daily triage tasks are receiving less interest – most likely because the bugs are harder or require a specialist..

Share your thoughts

Do you have thoughts on which option we should take? Or is there an alternative that we’ve missed? 

Please take part in our community survey and let us know.