NIPA support / lab mainenance #18
Description
We have an ever-growing list of tasks for NIPA work (50+ at the time of writing):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mFnt91SKtA9ENIUfY0v2UmZSXJzmvsa4oqha4t6JVBs/edit?gid=1985743919#gid=1985743919
These tasks are usually added when maintainers notice issues with NIPA, and they take a few hours each to complete. With HW testing fast approaching the list of tasks will likely only grow.
This proposal is to have a contract with someone to tick off the NIPA tasks so the list length doesn't get out of hand. The tasks are already prioritized so it should be easy to know where to start. The idea is to have someone with solid understanding of netdev work on NIPA related tasks work 1 day a week on outstanding tasks (rather than contracting for specific tasks).
Given the open-ended-ness of the contract we should ask for approval for budget for a full year, but start with a shorter contract and revisit / evaluate that the output meets our expectations. E.g. start with a 3mo contract and evaluate with the board after 2mo (giving ourselves 1mo to push thru paper work for the rest of the year).
The scope of the work does not include any kernel programming or fixing of flaky tests. This contract is purely for "infra" work.