WordPress 6.3 Release Leads: Experiences Behind the Scenes

WordPress 6.3 was released in early August, introducing recent improvements to make website creation much more enjoyable. But have you ever ever wondered what’s running behind the scenes each time WordPress releases a new edition?

To reply your curiosity, we’ve sat down with three WordPress 6.3 release co-leads – Ahmed Kabir Chaion, Leonardus Nugraha, and Pooja Derashri.

We discussed how they began as a release co-lead, what they worked on for this release, the challenges, and the fun experiences that they had. Let’s dive into the conversation!

How It Began

For Leonardus Nugraha – Leo, for brief – this was his first time joining a WordPress release squad.

Leo’s been energetic as a WordPress contributor for Documentation, Polyglots, and Community. When the WordPress 6.3 Call for Volunteers was announced, he decided to use for Documentation because that’s where he’s most energetic.

“I currently work as a content specialist. Nevertheless, I began at Hostinger as a content author for WordPress tutorials, so contributing to Documentation just feels natural. It suits my interest and skill set,” Leo explains.

Leo also desired to step up his contribution game by diving deeper into the world of open-source projects. “I would like to grasp the entire release process. After I’m contributing to the Documentation team, I only deal with one area of the project,” he says. “After I got involved in a WordPress release, I experienced more cross-functional workflows. I got to interact with contributors from various teams corresponding to Core and Marketing.”

It was also Pooja Derashri’s first time being a part of a WordPress release squad. She has been contributing to the project since 2017, mainly within the Training team.

Despite the fact that it was her first time being a release co-lead, Pooja has been involved in moving the past few WordPress releases forward.

“I actually have attended a couple of beta releases and release parties and contributed to testing some WordPress versions,” Pooja says. “I don’t need to limit my contribution. It has at all times been my aspiration to explore other contribution teams, like Core testing. So it fascinates me to grow to be a component of the discharge.”

To pursue her aspiration, Pooja followed the entire WordPress 6.2 release process. Then, when 6.3 was announced, she volunteered to be a component of it.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Kabir Chaion has been a component of the discharge squad multiple times – from WordPress 5.9 to six.1.

“I wasn’t in the discharge squad for six.2 because I used to be busy with WordCamp Asia. Now that the event’s over, I volunteered again as a part of the Core Triage team,” says Ahmed.

Coming from a language background with a sufficient understanding of programming, Ahmed began his journey in WordPress contribution by creating triage meeting summaries.

During WordPress 5.6, Tammie Lister and Estela Rueda – each were Design team reps – noticed Ahmed’s consistent contribution to the WordPress project. They offered to coach him to grow to be a Core contributor and a release co-lead.

For WordPress 5.8, Ahmed got a possibility to work directly on the discharge, but he was not a part of the discharge team. During version 5.9, he continued to specific his interest in joining the discharge squad. He was then chosen as certainly one of the Triage co-leads.

“Versions 5.9, 6.0, and 6.1 are the releases where I attempted to continually improve my role as a Triage lead. When I made a decision to not take part in the event of version 6.2, it was very vital for me to learn that I don’t should be involved on a regular basis. There are occasions after I can take a break and are available back stronger,” Ahmed admits.

Working on a WordPress Release

So, what were Leo, Pooja, and Ahmed assigned to on this release squad?

“There have been 4 Documentation co-leads for WordPress 6.3. We split the tasks – two of us worked on user documentation, and the opposite half took care of developer notes,” Leo recalls. “I used to be in control of developer notes. While user documentation is sort of a knowledge base for end users, developer notes are the identical but for developers. It was something recent for me.”

All developer notes must be able to publish throughout the first Release Candidate. Hence, Leo’s most intense working period was the 2 to 3 weeks before the primary Release Candidate.

“In the course of the first Release Candidate, many of the features were almost ready. But changes are still possible at this stage,” Leo explains. “Developer notes must be written by those that own the ticket or the request, not by the Documentation team. Our job is to wrangle these tickets, contact those who should write the notes, categorize them to see if some will be merged, then review and publish them.”

After the primary Release Candidates went public, Leo occasionally helped update user documentation. “They include interface changes, screenshots, recent features, and recent Blocks. There have been plenty of them,” says Leo.

Pooja, because the Test co-lead, handled the Call for Testing publications. The posts offer a possibility for anyone to check WordPress’ latest release and for developers to collect user insights. This promotes a culture of review and triage throughout the project.

“It’s published on the identical day because the Beta version of WordPress 6.3,” recounts Pooja. “My fellow Test co-leads and I closely monitored each feature enhancement scheduled for this release.”

“We monitored Gutenberg versions from the previous releases, attended every bug scrub within the Core team’s Slack channel, read their notes, and explored 6.3’s GitHub project board,” Pooja continues. “Then, we also went to many code-related Slack channels to collect updates and knowledge. We wanted to collect all of the testing-related information in a single place.”

Pooja and her teammates went on to publish more Call for Testing publications based on the changes throughout the discharge cycle.

Then we now have Ahmed, who handled triaging. Since Ahmed already has experience in release development, he mentored the discharge squad’s first-timers.

“My role as a Core Triage co-lead was to coach and mentor those who haven’t done Triage lead before,” says Ahmed.

“Since we now have 4 Core Triage co-leads, we tried to cover two time zones. So, there have been two co-leads from Asia Pacific (APAC) and two from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). That is so we will contribute and complement one another.” With this arrangement, Ahmed worked with Mukesh Panchal to cover the APAC time zone. Meanwhile, JB Audras and Olga Glecker covered the EMEA ones.

“I helped JB articulate plans for the triage. This included deciding on the triage sessions, which must cover as many various time zones and days of the week as possible,” says Ahmed. He also points out the importance of getting a couple of triaging session per week, which inspires more people to come back.

“I actually have been a component of the discharge squad a couple of times, and JB is a release squad veteran. So, we prepared the draft plan, and Mukesh and Olga helped finalize it,” Ahmed continues. This helps newer co-leads hone their skills and prepare for upcoming releases.

The Challenge

For Ahmed, the most important challenge was when a significant bug was encountered throughout the Beta 1 phase, which caused a fatal error. “We needed to push a couple of dates since the bug was severe,” he says. Fortunately, there have been more squad members working on WordPress 6.3 than usual, making it faster to achieve an answer.

Meanwhile, Pooja faced the challenge of overcoming worry when starting something recent. “Initially of the discharge cycle, I used to be so confused about what to do and the right way to start. Thankfully, my co-lead Brian Alexander guided me loads throughout the discharge process and helped me navigate my duties and responsibilities.”

Pooja has participated in tests for patch beta releases and Release Candidates of previous WordPress versions. Still, she was surprised that the method was different from what Test co-leads do.

“That’s why I actually appreciated how the WordPress release coordinators tried to balance the team composition this time. Latest people joined, but there have been also more experienced team members. Nobody felt pressured when working on this release,” she explains.

Leo also shares a priority just like Pooja’s – starting something recent will be scary sometimes. “Interacting with many recent people could make you nervous. But it surely turned out everyone was very welcoming. After a few days, I began to get the hang of it,” Leo recounts.

He also found the various sub-tasks of making developer notes pretty complex. There have been a number of back-and-forth communications throughout the event process.

Fortunately, Leo also felt very supported during his first stint as a Documentation co-lead. He appreciated how Milana Cap, a Documentation team rep, held an Ask Me Anything session for all Documentation co-leads. Meanwhile, Abha Thakor shared some advice about Core team resources.

“Many individuals helped me. Steven Lin, a fellow Documentation co-lead, showed me where to search out the developer notes and the right way to discover tickets in Core or Gutenberg. I made a decision to deal with the Gutenberg ones,” Leo recalls.

When Birgit Pauli-Haack noticed that Leo was doing the Gutenberg developer notes, she also offered her help, passing on her knowledge as a former Documentation co-lead. “I followed Birgit’s best practices to wrangle developer notes,” Leo says.

The Fun Stuff

Ahmed enjoys seeing people’s reactions after they discover he’s not a programmer.

“Some people assume that I’m a programmer who has the actual solution for the tickets. They’re surprised upon knowing I’m simply a documentation one who summarizes the problem, solution, or procedure,” Ahmed says. “I feel prefer it’s surprising for me as well, and at times overwhelming. But this learning experience could be very price it.”

Leo finds it delightful to know the workflow behind a WordPress release – from Beta, Release Candidates, to the ultimate release date. Working on developer notes, viewing tickets, and pulling requests for brand spanking new features and bug fixes helped him learn more concerning the upcoming WordPress release.

“Often, it’s quite hard to search out resources on technical stuff throughout the first days of a release cycle. It’s nice to grasp what’s running under the hood,” Leo admits.

Meanwhile, Pooja had a very funny memory throughout the 6.3 release. “It was the day of the 6.3 Beta release,” Pooja recalls. “I wasn’t well that day – I had a fever. I waited almost 4 hours until midnight in my time zone, expecting to kick off the Beta release party. But it surely was postponed for twenty-four hours resulting from technical issues.”

“It was very exciting, but since I took medicine for my fever, I used to be unaware that I used to be falling asleep while holding my laptop. After I woke up within the morning, I used to be still holding it open in front of me in bed,” she laughs, “I used to be blissful I didn’t miss anything.”

When asked about their favorite improvement on this release, Ahmed, Leo, and Pooja had different opinions.

For Ahmed, it’s concerning the improved workflow. “The WordPress 6.3 release had more people in the discharge squad, so the workload was less demanding. People worked more compassionately with one another,” he says.

Meanwhile, Pooja and Leo are excited concerning the features they’ve been waiting for.

“My favorites are the Distraction Free Mode, Command Palette, and Style Revisions. These features are so handy. Especially the last one, which lets users easily revise styles,” Pooja explains.

“For me, it’s how users can directly create Patterns from the Site Editor. Previously, you’d should use a plugin, code it from scratch, or create it via the Pattern Directory. Now it’s as easy as making a Reusable Block,” says Leo.

Onwards and Upwards

So, what else do they need to see in future WordPress releases?

“I’m definitely looking forward to the web collaboration features listed in Gutenberg phase 3‘s roadmap,” Leo says. This phase shall be centered around streamlining content management flows to enhance how WordPress users work, which regularly includes collaboration from various corners of the earth.

However, Pooja thinks that basic search engine marketing must be a part of WordPress core in the longer term. “Immediately, we still depend on third-party plugins to enhance our search engine marketing performance. It might be good to have basic search engine marketing as a built-in feature. If we wish more advanced functionality, we will use a third-party solution.”

Ahmed’s wish is comparable to Pooja’s, only he takes it a step further. “In the longer term, I would like to see a world where having just WordPress can be enough to have an exquisite website.”

The upcoming WordPress 6.4 release shall be run entirely by a squad of female and nonbinary contributors, reprising the historic WordPress 5.6 release.

Pooja will reprise her role as a Test Lead within the 6.4 release. “I’m so excited for the 6.4 release. Prior to now few years, we now have been trying our greatest to advertise and maintain Diversity, Equality, Inclusivity, and Belonging in our meetups and WordCamps. I’m sure it should set one other benchmark of success within the open-source ecosystem. We wish to share the message that ladies and non-binary folx are usually not lesser than.”

For WordPress enthusiasts who need to be a part of the discharge squad, Ahmed suggests being proactive in understanding the ins and outs of WordPress. “A minimum of experience or witness one release cycle entirely. See how the squad was formed, why one person got chosen, and how much work they delivered.”

Ahmed continues, “Once you have got the knowledge, only then volunteer. That could make the entire process easier. Learning on the job is one thing, nevertheless it would create a further workload for others for those who cannot deliver your part. It’s a voluntary commitment, so it’s great for those who will be reliable for the tasks.”

Being a component of the discharge squad indeed requires a certain level of experience and experience. But this mustn’t discourage anyone from aiming for it in the longer term.

“After contributing to this community for some time, you’ll start connecting with fellow WordPress enthusiasts. Here, everyone likes to lift one another up. Whenever you encounter difficulties, there shall be many people who find themselves greater than blissful to assist,” assures Leo, emphasizing the supportive nature of the WordPress community.