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Analysis of 2019 User Survey Feedback
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=====================================
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Introduction
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------------
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The OpenStack Technical Committee (TC) added questions to the User Survey for
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the first time in 2019. The following questions were asked by the TC:
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* How do you upgrade your version of OpenStack?
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* Once on a given release, do you use stable branches for bugfix upgrades?
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* To which projects does your organization contribute maintenance resources,
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such as patches for bug fixes and code reviews on master or stable
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branches?
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* How do members of your organization contribute to OpenStack?
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* What prevents you or your organization from contributing more maintenance
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resources, or makes contributing difficult?
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* Other ways to participate?
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The intention of these questions was to understand how users are maintaining
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their OpenStack clouds and how they are interacting with the community. In the
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case that they weren't currently interacting with the community it was hoped
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that the questions would spark thoughts on how they could participate in the
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future.
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In general the TC was pleased with the number of responses they got to the
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questions and the information provided. As a result it was decided that the
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TC won't revise the questions before the next User Survey. The plan is to
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look at the responses to the next survey and then decide if any questions need
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to be revised or changed.
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Below we will summarize the responses that were received to each of the
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questions:
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How do you upgrade your version of OpenStack?
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---------------------------------------------
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This is the question to which we got the greatest response. The following
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were the available responses to choose from and the associated number of
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responses:
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Question | Number of Users | Percentage of Responses |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Upgrade all coordinated releases (once every 6 months) | 73 | 22 |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Skip/Fast-forward releases | 91 | 27 |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Not Upgrade | 119 | 35 |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Deploy Regularly from master branch | 30 | 9 |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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| Deploy all intermediary releases and all | 24 | 7 |
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| coordinated releases | | |
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+--------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------------------+
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So the responses here were spread pretty widely. The number of users who
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respond that they don't upgrade explains why there are so many people still
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running on releases like Mitaka and Newton. The number of users that do
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skip or fast-forward updates supports the efforts that have gone into making
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such an upgrade path possible.
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For a future survey it would be interesting to ask the users who are not
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upgrading why that is the case. Would be good to know if this is due to it
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being seen as too dificult a thing to do or if it is just that the users
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don't see a need. At this point, however, the TC doesn't feel that the
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current results warrant a revision to the questions.
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Once on a given release, do you use stable branches for bugfix upgrades?
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This question also had good participation with about two thirds of the users
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responding to the question. The responses were also pretty evenly spread
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across four of the five options:
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Answer | Users | Percentage of Responses |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| I do not do bugfix upgrades | 40 | 19 |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Yes, backporting specific fixes | 45 | 21 |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Yes, deploying every commit on the stable branch | 9 | 4 |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Yes, upgrading at various points in time depending on fixes | 56 | 26 |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Yes, using only official point releases | 66 | 31 |
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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Not surprisingly, deploying every commit being the least popular option.
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The fact that the majority of users reported using the official point
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releases speaks to the importance of continuing to do stable releases.
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Similar to the previous question, it would be interesting to know why the
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people who do not do bugfix upgrades choose that route. It would also be
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interesting to correlate if these are the same people who responded that
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they don't upgrade at all or if this is a different group of users that
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go from major release to major release only.
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To which projects does your organization contribute maintenance resources such as patches for bug and reviews on master or stable branches?
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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About one third of users responded to this question. The results
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were as one would expect with `core projects
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<https://docs.openstack.org/security-guide/introduction/introduction-to-openstack.html#openstack-service-overview>`_ having the
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greatest participation. The top 5 were as follows:
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+----------+-------+
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| Project | Users |
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+----------+-------+
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| Nova | 45 |
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+----------+-------+
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| Neutron | 43 |
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+----------+-------+
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| Cinder | 27 |
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+----------+-------+
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| Keystone | 26 |
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+----------+-------+
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| Glance | 25 |
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+----------+-------+
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In discussing these results the TC wanted to know how this
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compared to the number of users who report they are using the
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project. To get this information we considered the number of
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users who reported that they were using the project in production
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with one exception. Karbor had 4 respondents report they were using
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it but only 3 in production so the number of respondents that
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indicated they were testing it was used. Here are the results of
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that investigation:
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Project | Contributors | Users | % Participation |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Aodh | 12 | 48 | 25% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Barbican | 9 | 48 | 19% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Blazar | 3 | 3 | 100% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Ceilometer | 21 | 153 | 14% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Cinder | 27 | 285 | 9% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Cloudkitty | 3 | 13 | 23% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Cyborg | 2 | 2 | 100% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Designate | 15 | 61 | 25% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Glance | 25 | 296 | 8% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Heat | 18 | 212 | 8% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Horizon | 17 | 271 | 6% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Ironic | 21 | 77 | 27% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Karbor | 4 | 7 | 57% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Keystone | 26 | 291 | 9% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Kolla | 24 | 46 | 52% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Kuryr | 5 | 7 | 71% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| LOCI | 2 | 5 | 40% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Magnum | 14 | 48 | 29% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Manila | 9 | 39 | 23% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Masakari | 1 | 6 | 17% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Mistral | 9 | 26 | 35% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Monasca | 5 | 22 | 23% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Murano | 3 | 17 | 18% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Neutron | 43 | 294 | 15% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Nova | 45 | 297 | 15% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Octavia | 23 | 66 | 35% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| OpenStack Client | 15 | 192 | 8% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| OpenStack Ansible | 24 | 63 | 38% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| OpenStack Helm | 3 | 13 | 23% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Panko | 9 | 20 | 45% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Rally | 9 | 57 | 16% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Sahara | 5 | 24 | 21% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Swift | 15 | 141 | 11% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Tacker | 6 | 8 | 75% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Trove | 4 | 27 | 15% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| TripleO | 9 | 34 | 16% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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| Zaqar | 3 | 13 | 23% |
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+-------------------+--------------+-------+-----------------+
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It is interesting to note how the rate of participation in
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the core projects is generally lower than other projects. As we
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don't have this data from previous surveys we can't tell if this
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rate of participation has been consistent over time or if it has
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changed. It will be worthwhile to continue to look at these numbers
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in future surveys.
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Another interesting thing to note in the results is the fact that
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users who responded, generally contributed to more than one
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project. There were a few examples where contribution to
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only one project was indicated, but this was not the majority
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case.
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How do members of your organization contribute to OpenStack?
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------------------------------------------------------------
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More than half of the users responded to this question. For
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the most part the answers were evenly spread with the
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exception of submitting bug reports which was the clear
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winner for participation. Here is the breakdown:
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Contribution | Users | Percentage of Responses |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Bug reports | 123 | 86 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Participate in forum sessions at the summit | 70 | 47 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Pariticpate in ops meetups | 57 | 39 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Bug fixes on master | 54 | 36 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Documentation improvement | 49 | 33 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Code review on master | 46 | 31 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Participate in PTG sessions | 38 | 26 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Backporting bug fixes to stable branches | 34 | 23 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Feature design review | 33 | 22 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Code review on stable branches | 30 | 20 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Sponsor in-person events | 30 | 20 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Host third-party jobs downstream | 13 | 9 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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| Contribute resources to run CI jobs upstream | 12 | 8 |
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+----------------------------------------------+-------+-------------------------+
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Keeping in mind that this was a user survey, these
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results are very interesting. Over one quarter
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of the users that responded submit bug fixes on
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master and nearly as many also do code reviews.
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Many of the users are also taking advantage of the
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Forum Sessions and Ops Meetups. As with the previous
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question, it seemed that users who participated indicated
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participation in multiple ways.
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This would seem to support one of the things that
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we highlight as being unique about our community. We
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are users and developers collaborating together.
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What prevents you or your organization from contributing more maintenance resources, or makes contributing difficult?
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This question elicited a response from 19% of the participants.
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The field was also a free-form field, rather than multiple
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choice which seems to generally get fewer response.
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Of the 69 user responses, the majority of them had
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to do with a lack of time or human resources. Other
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responses indicated that they were busy running
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their data centers, going along with the theme
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of insufficient time.
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There were a few surprising responses with regards to
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it not being clear how to contribute. Hopefully
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the user survey got them thinking about other
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ways to contribute. There has been a good focus
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in OpenStack on making how to contribute easier
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to understand both through documentation and
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through education opportunities. Perhaps there
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is a need to better socialize these opportunities?
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Other ways to participate:
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--------------------------
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This was another free-form field that only got responses
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from 1% of participants. There were a few responses
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that are worth noting as they show other ways
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that users work to participate.
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There were responses indicating that they particpate
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in OpenStack User Groups. Doing such things
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is important to keep communication in the
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community flowing. Another user indicated that
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they write blogs on how to do things. We talk
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about documentation as a way to contribute but
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forget to mention that blogs can also be a great
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way to contribute and share information. Similarly,
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another user indicated that they help write
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troubleshooting guides. Another great way to help
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the wider community. Finally, one other user indicated
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that they work with their distributor to communicate
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and create requirements for future enhancements.
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This was interesting as it is an indication
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that we may not directly see the ways that people
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are participating with the community.
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All-in-all these responses continued to support
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the collaborative nature of the OpenStack community.
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Summary
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-------
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The TC was pleased with the first round of answers
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we got from the User Survey. We don't feel a need
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to change the questions for the next survey. This
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will give us a chance to see if responses are
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consistent between surveys or if there appears to be
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variation. After that round we may choose
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to refine the questions.
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There weren't any really surprising responses this
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time around. The collaborative nature of OpenStack
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Users is aparent in the results. We will want to
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ensure that we don't see a decline in those numbers.
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In the mean time, we should be proud of the unique
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and diverse nature of the community we have helped to
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develop.
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Additional Resources
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--------------------
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For those interested in more details please see the
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`mailing list <http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-discuss/2019-September/009501.html>`_
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thread that includes the results that were used to
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create this analysis. The `OpenStack Survey Report
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<https://www.openstack.org/analytics>`_ also provides
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a graphical overview of the OpenStack Survey
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results.
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