A beta release of Drupal 8 is currently blocked by a large number of issues (~50) tagged with beta blocker: Beta blocking issue set.
Many of these issues will be addressed by specific sprint teams at Szeged. And some will not have specific champions to usher them through to resolution.
We will be the team that takes on these orphaned issues.
These issues are not beta blockers because they are easy. Oh no, we are down to these issues precisely because they are so tricky. The Spark team has dedicated Quarter 1 of 2014 to an exclusive focus on Drupal 8 beta blockers. We want to see this list down to zero by the conclusion of Drupal Dev Days in Szeged.
Taking on a beta blocker requires collaboration, tenacity and humility. I, personally, have jumped into issues that are way above my current skill level such as Use #pre_render pattern for entity render caching. I had to talk to several core contributors to understand how the caching system works, how to profile PHP with XHProf and how the #pre_render pattern could be employed to improve performance. It was a frustrating struggle for several days, but I feel that I now have a better grasp on core Drupal 8 concepts. Developing these personal insights is what you will gain by joining this sprint and you will help move Drupal 8 along to release in the process.
We need individuals with diverse skills for our team:
- Project management - Part of the being a Drupal 8 Dæmon will involve managing other sprint members to encourage focus on beta blockers. There are many issues in Drupal 8 to work on, but not all of them are blocking the release. We want to encourage others to focus on blockers. PMs will track progress on blockers and make daily reports to keep morale high.
- User Experience Design - Many beta blockers require us to make design compromises to balance resolving an issue with the complexity of implementation. We don't want to sacrifice UX, but we also don't want to leave an issue unresolved and blocking because of disagreements on user interaction patterns. UX Dæmons will help developers find acceptable UX solutions that allow us to move forward on tough issues.
- Development - PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, full stack, etc...Drupal 8 Dæmon Developers will jump into touch problems and help each other out. Most of the beta blockers are too complex for any one individual to resolve on their own. We will focus on the unattended blocking issues and make ourselves available to other sprinting teams for reviews, consultations and code hacking.
Our goal is to release a Drupal 8 beta by the end of Drupal Dev Days Szeged. Join the Beta Dæmons. Help us make it happen.
