Feature Owner Tasks

Creating a feature entry

Every new feature on the web platform should have a ChromeStatus feature entry.

Users may create a feature entry if they have an @chromium.org or @google.com account, or if they become a registered user by sending an email to webstatus-request@google.com.

Steps:

1. Visit chromestatus.com and sign in.

2. Click the "Create feature" button.

3. Fill in the feature creation form:

   • Be sure to follow the on-screen instructions for each form field. Use the "+" icon to see more detailed field-level help and examples.
   • Choose the feature type that matches the type of feature work that you will be doing (the feature type can not be changed after the feature is created). See the launching-features guide for details.

4. Submit the form.

Once you have completed those steps, you will see the feature detail page for your new feature. A summary of the feature is shown at the top of the page, followed by details of each stage of development. The list of stages is determined by the feature type, but some stages can be added or removed.

Editing feature entry fields

Each feature entry detail page contains expandable sections for each stage of development. With each stage section there are fields of information needed for that stage.

Users may edit fields if they are listed as a feature owner or feature editor on that feature entry. Users who have the role of "site editor" or "site admin" may edit any feature.

Steps:

1. Expand the appropriate stage section.

2. Click the "Edit fields" button.

3. Edit the field values. Be sure to follow on-screen instructions for each form field.

4. Submit the form.

Alternatively, the "Edit all fields" button may be more convenient when editing several fields in different stages, or when you know the name of the field you wish to edit but not the stage that contains it.

After you have submitted your changes, email notifications of the changes are sent out to the reviewers and an entry is added to the comments and activity log for that feature.

Requesting reviews

Once all applicable fields in a given stage have been filled in, feature owners should request reviews from each cross-functional team.

Users may request a review if they are listed as a feature owner or feature editor on that feature entry.

Steps:

1. Expand the appropriate stage section.

2. Click the gate chip for a review team, e.g., "Debuggability". This opens a gate column on the right side of the page.

3. Read the survey questions and respond to them by posting a comment.

4. Click the "Request review" button near the top of the gate column.

After you have clicked "Request review", an email notification is sent to reviewers to let them know that they should review your feature entry. Also, the "Request review" button will be replaced with status information showing when the review was requested. Reviewers are expected to give some initial response within a specific number of days, however the total time needed to resolve the review depends on the specific details of the feature and how quickly feature owners respond to reviewer questions.

Sending intents

After cross-functional reviews have been completed, feature owners may request review by API Owners. The steps for these reviews are similar to the steps above, but also require sending an email message.

Users may request an API Owner review if they are listed as a feature owner or feature editor on that feature entry.

Steps:

1. Expand the appropriate stage section.

2. Click the gate chip for "API Owners". This opens a gate column on the right side of the page.

3. Read the survey questions section, but typically most discussion will happen on blink-dev rather than on comments in ChromeStatus.

4. Click the "Draft Intent to Ship email" button near the top of the gate column.

5. At this point, you may see a dialog box that lists missing form fields or prerequisite cross-functional reviews. If that happens, click the links listed next to each missing field to navigate to the editing form for that field and fill it in. If some listed fields or reviews are really not relevant to your feature, you may proceed without them, however the API Owners may ask you to go back to fill them in if they feel the information is needed.

6. A new tab will open with a preview of the email message that you need to send to blink-dev.

7. Copy and paste the To-line, Subject-line, and body into a new message in your email client. A copy button is provided to make it easier to copy the body. You may edit the message body before sending it, but do not change the subject line, general format of the message, or the section with the link to your feature entry.
   Optionally, you may paste the intent message body into a document and share it with your team before sending the intent. If you do that, please make any suggested changes in the fields of your feature entry and then regenerate the intent email.

8. Send the intent email to blink-dev@chromium.org.

Once you have sent the intent email to blink-dev, ChromeStatus will detect it and replace the "Draft Intent to Ship email" button with a message stating the date on which the review was requested. Questions and answers about an intent typically happen on the public intent thread. As with cross-functional reviews, the API Owners are expected to give an initial response within a certain number of days, but the overall review time depends on the details of your feature and your responses on the thread. Unlike other reviews, the "Intent to Ship" review requires approval from three API Owners.

After the intent has been fully approved, feature owners may take steps outside of ChromeStatus to deploy their feature as appropriate for that stage. E.g., set up an origin trial, or enable the feature by default.