Add release checklist and testing information

This commit adds the checklist containing specific tasks to
be completed in stage of the release and the testing strategy
which defines the hardware/backends that are used to for running
the tests.

Signed-off-by: Gowtham Suresh Kumar <[email protected]>

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@
    - [How to add operations to Parsec](contributing/adding_new_operation_how_to.md)
    - [Package management and versioning guide](contributing/package_management.md)
    - [The Parsec Release Process](contributing/release_process.md)
+   - [The Parsec Release Checklist](contributing/release_checklist.md)
 - [Archive](archive/README.md)
    - [System Architecture](archive/system_architecture.md)
 

src/contributing/release_checklist.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# The Parsec Release Checklist
+
+The release process is divided into 4 stages as shown below. Each stage has a discrete set of
+activities to be completed before progressing to the next stage. The list shown below is only a
+template, as there might be additional tasks specific to that release that might be added to
+different stages.
+
+Stages:
+
+- Prior Code freeze
+   - [ ]  Publish new versions of all managed crates and configure parsec service and tool to use
+      them. See
+      this [guide](https://parallaxsecond.github.io/parsec-book/contributing/package_management.html).
+   - [ ]  Fix any pending issues
+   - [ ]  Check common dependency crates versions between the parsec service, parsec tool, and
+      other crates
+   - [ ]  Review PRs across Parsec repos
+   - [ ]  Merge PRs got approved
+   - [ ]  Check the milestone list
+- During code freeze
+   - [ ]  Issue release candidate tag x.x.x-rc1
+   - [ ]  OpenSUSE packaging for the RC
+   - [ ]  Pull in the latest git dependencies in the crates to ensure the latest release would
+      work.
+   - [ ]  Execute the normal e2e tests on Raspberry Pi hardware:
+      - mbed-crypto
+      - TPM
+      - Nitrokey HSM (pluggable USB)
+   - [ ]  Execute fuzz testing for some time
+   - [ ]  Ask the Linux distributions packagers to try the tagged version
+   - [ ]  Ask the Parsec Yocto maintainers to try the tagged version
+   - [ ]  Ask any interested people to try the tagged version
+   - [ ]  Review the book and make sure all pages are up-to-date. In particular, make sure the
+      Threat Model is up to date.
+   - [ ]  Make sure all the markdown pages (like the README) look good.
+   - [ ]  Make sure the rustdoc pages (on docs.rs) are looking good (before and after the release).
+   - [ ]  If any bugs are reported, we fix bugs and then issue another release candidate, x.x.x-rcx
+   - [ ]  When All reported issues are addressed, make a GitHub release out of the last tag, which
+      includes its changelog, and ask maintainers to release this version of Parsec.
+- Release
+   - [ ]  Push the release tag for the service and the parsec-tool
+   - [ ]  Publish the new quickstart bundle and update the quickstart guide with it
+- Post-release
+   - [ ]  Close issues fixed in the release and the past milestone
+   - [ ]  Update, test, and upstream Yocto recipes for Parsec and parsec-tool
+   - [ ]  Make a new issue milestone for the next release
+   - [ ]  Update the [Roadmap](https://github.com/parallaxsecond/community/blob/main/ROADMAP.md)
+   - [ ]  Update the [Parsec Release
+      Process](https://parallaxsecond.github.io/parsec-book/contributing/release_process.html) 
+      with what we learned.
+   - [ ]  If any bugs are reported, make new MINOR or PATCH tags
+   - [ ]  Update the Parsec Tool demo
+
+*Copyright 2023 Contributors to the Parsec project.*

src/contributing/release_process.md

@@ -127,6 +127,47 @@ perform whatever testing is necessary to verify that the new feature has reached
 quality level for the release. Systems integrators and known adopters of Parsec will also be
 notified that a new release is available for integration testing.
 
+As part of the release testing, we run the end-to-end tests on a RaspberryPi for the following
+backends:
+
+- mbed crypto
+- TPM
+- Nitrokey HSM
+
+Further platforms and backends will be added to this in future releases. The results of the release
+testing are critical in determining if the parsec service and the tool is ready for release, and
+whether it meets the requirements and expectations of the end users.
+
+The following failures are expected in the RaspberryPi platform for the specific backends.
+
+- mbed-crypto: All tests are passing
+- PKCS11: 17 failures
+   asym_encrypt_and_decrypt_rsa_pkcs
+   asym_encrypt_decrypt_rsa_pkcs_different_keys
+   simple_asym_encrypt_rsa_oaep_pkcs11
+   simple_asym_encrypt_rsa_pkcs
+   asym_verify_fail_ecc_sha256
+   fail_verify_hash2_ecc
+   fail_verify_hash_ecc
+   fail_verify_hash_rsa
+   sign_verify_hash_ecc
+   simple_verify_hash_ecc
+   rsa_encrypt_use_check
+   check_public_ecc_export_format
+   import_and_export_ecc_public_key
+   import_and_export_ecc_public_key_by_export_public_key_fn
+   check_format_import_ecc
+   import_ecc_key
+   import_ecc_key_twice
+- TPM: 5 failures
+   simple_asym_encrypt_rsa_pkcs
+   activate_credential_bad_data
+   activate_credential_ecc
+   activate_credential_rsa
+   check_name
+
+The new release candidate should ideally not introduce any regressions.
+
 ## Release Expectations
 
 There are currently no formal release expectations documented for the Parsec project. Release