Retro for O3DE Stable 21.11

[tonybalandiuk]

This issue will serve to collect feedback on the O3DE Stable 21.11 release.
The below retro notes serve as a starting point and were compiled in the December 2021 SIG-Release meetings.
The entire O3DE community is encouraged to participate here by commenting on this issue so we can improve our releases. To make your comment useful, please start out your comment with one of the following phrases:
"Something that went well..."
"Something that didn't go well..."
"Something that we should change..."

Next Steps

• Solicit Feedback under this issue. All feedback due by Jan 19, 2022
• (optional) Depending on the feedback received, set up a specific public meeting to have further about the 21.11 release.
• For all "Things we want to change" we will create issues as needed or note how this will get addressed.
• Also post a summary to the SIG-Release channel

*****Retro is Below this line *******

Things that went well

1. Holding the release call in the channel was good.
2. We had 3-4 community members on the release call.

Things that didn't go well

1. Some issues on the call took longer like LFS, and we ended up hanging around on the call for longer than needed.
2. The release felt stressful, unpredictable
3. DCO was a constant thorn for all integrations (not just this release branch). Not everyone is signing their commits.

Things we should change

1. Would be good to get metrics from docs
2. Plan out in the open
3. Start planning earlier
4. Develop Runbooks
5. Start including Linux Foundation legal
6. At some point, have someone from the community act as release manager
7. DCO - better enforcement of DCO on individual commits. ASWF has a good DCO enforcement bot.

[tonybalandiuk]

No additional feedback has been posted for the Stable 21.11 retro. As a result, we won't hold another public meeting since there's nothing new to discuss. Checkboxes (1) and (2) above are done.

[tonybalandiuk]

1. Would be good to get metrics from docs
   This is being handled by Doug https://discord.com/channels/805939474655346758/816043656377008179/936054999190999051

2. Plan out in the open
   Done here for the 21.11.2 point release https://github.com/o3de/o3de/projects/8

3. Start planning earlier
   Planning will begin once a release target date is established by SIG-Release

4. Develop Runbooks
   Templates for point release are at [Release Day] Execute Launch o3de#6635

5. Start including Linux Foundation legal
   They were included in the point release and will be included going forward

6. At some point, have someone from the community act as release manager
   This is an eventual goal that SIG-release has discussed, although there is no formal tracking of this.

7. DCO - better enforcement of DCO on individual commits. ASWF has a good DCO enforcement bot.
   SIG-Build has an issue for this at DCO plugin improvements investigation sig-build#21

[tonybalandiuk]

posted summary to SIG-Release channel https://discord.com/channels/805939474655346758/816043864858951710/944339720790487120