Puppetlabs Modules Now Have Tiered Review Cycles

If you've been watching the Puppetlabs namespace on the Forge (or waiting on a pull request you opened) you've likely noticed that the pace of inclusion of community pull requests and fixes into the module releases has slowed over the last several cycles. That isn't how we want to serve the community that built these modules with us. The team has been reviewing how we can improve and this post is our commitment to do better. Here are the steps we're taking now: 

• Clear tiers with review cadences. Modules in the puppetlabs namespace will be grouped into three tiers, each with a defined review schedule (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).  
• Defining what “review cadence” means in practice. Every community PR gets engineering review in the next scheduled cycle for that module’s tier.  
• Showing progress monthly. We’ll continue to publish the monthly Modules Roundup covering what was released. 

A Tiered Approach to Priorities 

We've categorized supported modules in the puppetlabs namespace into three tiers, each with a defined community review cadence: 

What a Review Cadence Means

Every community pull request (PR) on a module in the puppetlabs namespace gets engineering review during the next scheduled cycle for that module's tier. This doesn’t mean that every PR will be accepted. Sometimes a pull request needs feedback or changes, some pull requests won't fit a module's direction, but the cadence is intended to make sure that PRs will no longer sit quietly in a queue. That is the baseline we're holding ourselves to with these tiers and review cadences. 

We do have a backlog of requests over the years and we will be working through that backlog as well, but priority will be given to active contributions for the purposes of our review cadence. 

Tier 1: Our highest-priority modules 

The following modules are our committed Tier 1 set. These modules will get a weekly review, with nightly CI coverage, and get priority on maintenance capacity: 

• puppetlabs-apache 
• puppetlabs-apt 
• puppetlabs-augeas_core 
• puppetlabs-concat 
• puppetlabs-cron_core 
• puppetlabs-docker 
• puppetlabs-firewall 
• puppetlabs-haproxy 
• puppetlabs-inifile 
• puppetlabs-java 
• puppetlabs-java_ks 
• puppetlabs-lvm 
• puppetlabs-mount_core 
• puppetlabs-mysql 
• puppetlabs-ntp 
• puppetlabs-package 
• puppetlabs-postgresql 
• puppetlabs-powershell 
• puppetlabs-reboot 
• puppetlabs-registry  
• puppetlabs-ruby_task_helper 
• puppetlabs-service 
• puppetlabs-sshkeys_core 
• puppetlabs-stdlib 
• puppetlabs-vcsrepo 

Tier 2: Monthly reviews 

The following modules have currently been assigned to our Tier 2 for prioritization. These modules will get a monthly review. 

•  puppetlabs-accounts 
• puppetlabs-acl 
• puppetlabs-bolt_shim 
• puppetlabs-chocolatey 
• puppetlabs-facter_task 
• puppetlabs-iis 
• puppetlabs-kubernetes 
• puppetlabs-motd 
• puppetlabs-mount_iso 
• puppetlabs-node_encrypt 
• puppetlabs-puppet_conf 
• puppetlabs-satellite_pe_tools 
• puppetlabs-scheduled_task 
• puppetlabs-sqlserver 
• puppetlabs-sslcertificate 
• puppetlabs-tomcat 
• puppetlabs-windows_env 
• puppetlabs-windows_eventlog 
• puppetlabs-wsus_client

Tier 3: Quarterly reviews 

The modules assigned to Tier 3 are still supported but will not generally be getting a high degree of priority. These modules will be reviewed quarterly and released as needed. 

• ca_extend 
• influxdb 
• puppet_operational_dashboards 
• puppetlabs-bash_task_helper 
• puppetlabs-dropsonde 
• puppetlabs-dsc_lite 
• puppetlabs-facts 
• puppetlabs-host_core 
• puppetlabs-node_manager 
• puppetlabs-pe_databases 
• puppetlabs-pe_event_forwarding 
• puppetlabs-pe_status_check 
• puppetlabs-puppet_bolt_server 
• puppetlabs-puppet_metrics_collector 
• puppetlabs-puppet_status_check 
• puppetlabs-selinux_core 
• puppetlabs-splunk_hec 
• puppetlabs-yumrepo_core 
• puppetlabs-zfs_core 
• puppetlabs-zone_core 
• ruby-pwsh 
• support-tasks 

The Product and Engineering teams are still reviewing the puppetlabs modules for final placement in Tier 2 or Tier 3 and will follow the cadence associated with their tier once that placement is confirmed. Ultimately, the lists above might shift slightly as the team finds that some modules might need more attention than others. 

What has already shipped? 

It is one thing to say you will do better and quite another to follow through. We’re sharing this now because we have tangible changes already underway. In a focused sprint on Tier 1 modules, the team triaged and actioned several open community pull requests, some merged after review, some closed after discussion, others consolidated with newer work. You’ll see several modules released this month and next with these merged changes on the Forge. Keep an eye on the Forge modules list or check out the next Puppet Modules Roundup post for a summary! 

On the Issues With CI for community PRs 

We're aware that testing community contributions has been harder than it should be. The current pull request model makes it difficult to run the full acceptance test suite against a contributor's PR without manual effort by Perforce employees, which slows reviews and discourages contributions. Solving this is a priority for the team and we have been prototyping an improved approach that will meet both user expectations and maintaining a secure infrastructure. We’ll share specifics once it's working end-to-end. This is a known gap we're committed to closing. 

How We'll Show Our Work 

• Monthly Modules Roundup. We publish a roundup each month covering what  modules have been released, who contributed, and what’s next. You can follow the series here: Puppetlabs Modules Roundup on dev.to. 
• Contributor recognition. The release notes on the Forge and in the monthly roundup will call out merged community PRs by name. 
• Public GitHub transparency. We will be following up with contributors directly in pull requests and issues in our open source modules. In advance of a release, we will continue to merge and close PRs so that you can see what will be included in an upcoming release. 

How can you help? 

Keep contributing! Keep filing issues. Keep telling us when a module is in your way. If a PR of yours has stalled out, please rebase it or comment on the PR. And if the tiering above looks wrong for how you use Puppet day-to-day, let us know! The whole point of publishing this article is so that the community can understand what is changing and also to invite you to shape where the priority goes. 

Tiering is not a one-way decision.  

The tiers outlined here have been based on the activity we have observed in our analytics and the importance identified by customers. If a module you depend on isn't in the tier you think it should be, or perhaps a long-waiting PR or issue is blocking you, reach out via the Puppet Community Slack or leave a comment on the monthly Puppet Modules Roundup posts. We want your input to make sure the tiering meet the needs of all our users. 

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