Greetings everyone!
On behalf of the Code Ownership Working Group, I am sharing an update on how the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is approaching Service[1] Ownership to, among other things, ensure clear accountability for responding to incidents in Wikimedia production services.
Wikimedia production runs a large and diverse set of software – built by WMF teams, affiliates, Wikimedia volunteer developers, and third parties. Regardless of origin, all production services need clear accountability for handling production failures like UBNs (UnBreak Nows arising from production incidents, such as security, deployment, availability, bugs, etc.), migrating infrastructure, and software upgrades. When accountability is unclear for production services, incident handling defaults to first responders or whomever is available, which isn’t a reliable model and can increase risks or delays.
We’ve therefore begun a focused effort to systematically reduce instances where production software lacks contingencies and clearly defined WMF team responsibilities. This work involves finding team assignments for all production services and is primarily about improving clarity and accountability withinthe WMF. We don’t expect assignments for all production services right away, but expect to gradually narrow the set of unowned services prioritized by risk.
Some software in the Wikimedia production environment is primarily developed by the Wikimedia volunteer community. Wikimedia volunteers make essential contributions, including during time-sensitive incidents, but the WMF can’t expect guaranteed availability or formal time commitments from volunteers. For these services, WMF teams are expected to step in for urgent operational needs if volunteers aren’t available. This is about being clear as to who should respond when production services need time-sensitive work (like UBNs).
We’ve published two documents on wiki (a) Service Ownership Roles and Responsibilities https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Production/Service_Catalog/Ownership_Roles_and_Responsibilities (b) FAQ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Production/Service_Catalog/FAQ. As part of this work, we will borrow heavily from the existing Maintainers page to build a Service Catalog. We will publish this on wiki with an intent to gradually deprecate and retire the existing Maintainers page.
Please reach out on the Talk pages of the wiki pages above if you want any additional clarification not addressed here or in those links.
Subbu, on behalf of the Code Ownership Working Group @ WMF.
[1] Service represents a unit of ownership: microservice, extension, library, MW core component, etc.