Notify specification committee immediately after posting a project specification project proposal for community review

[waynebeaton]

An addition for the operations guide...

When the EMO posts a specification project proposal for community review, the governing specification committee is notified on their public discussion mailing list that the community review is underway. Any feedback that the committee members have at that phase may be recorded as part of the community review. The project team then has the opportunity to incorporate that feedback into the proposal or not. Whether or not feedback is incorporated then becomes a factor for consideration by the specification committee members when called upon to ballot to approve the creation of the specification project. That is, the probability that the specification committee's ballot will result in their approval to create the specification project is greatly increased when their feedback is properly considered prior to the initiation of the ballot.

I'll evolve this further. It really should be that the feedback be considered and discussed. I want to avoid any suggestion that feedback must be accepted without question.

There's also an opportunity here for a flow chart or visualization of some kind.

...
start_community_review -> notify_pmc
start_community_review -> notify_specification_committee
...
pmc_approval -> initiate_creation_review
initiate_creation_review -> initiate_specification_committee_approval
...
specification_committee_approval -> start_provisioning
...

[waynebeaton]

Some additional words that might be useful.

The details of the specification project (scope, description, committer list, patent license) must be locked down before the creation review starts (the creation review requires and includes the ballot of the specification committee). This means that the specification committee must, during the time between when the project proposal is posted for community review and the start of the creation review (this period of time is referred to as the “community review period”), work with the project team to stabilise the details of the project and with the steering committee to resolve any exceptional patent license selection. Presumably, the specification committee will resolve their work before engaging the steering committee to grant an exception (in the event that an exception is required). The steering committee will need time to consult internally before rendering a vote, so the length of the community review period is very much dependent on how long the committees require to complete their review work.

[waynebeaton]

There's also an opportunity here for a flow chart or visualization of some kind.

Something like (revised):

Consider capturing as a UML sequence diagram instead.

[waynebeaton]

In prose, the process for creating a new specification project is basically the following:

• The proposal team assembles the proposal;
• The proposal team asks the EMO to open the proposal for community review;
• The EMO works with the proposal team to ensure that the proposal meets our definition of a minimally viable proposal;
• The EMO requests approval from the EMO(ED) to post for community review;
• The EMO posts the proposal for community review;
• The EMO informs the specification committee of  the proposal;
• The EMO requests approval from the PMC;
• The EMO initiates a trademark review of the proposed name;
• Community review (specification committee works with the proposal team to get the proposal into a state where they are ready to lock it down and start an approval ballot);
• The specification committee and proposal team decide that the proposal is ready for approval ballot;
• The proposal team requests that the EMO initiate a creation review;
• The EMO initiates the creation review (this locks down the proposal; no further changes);
• The EMO requests that the specification committee initiate their ballot;
• The specification committee initiates the creation approval ballot;
• The EMO completes their review;
• The specification committee completes their ballot and informs the EMO of the result;
• The EMO declares success on the creation review; and
• The EMO creates the project and initiates the provisioning of project resources, committers, etc.

There's some exceptional cases, but this is the gist.

Further, we should emphatically state that:

The EMO will not create a specification project (or provide any resources to the team) without having first had the specification committee approve the creation by super majority ballot.

[paulbuck]

In general I find the prose and diagram helpful. Thanks! Comment: the diagram and the prose could be out of sync, the prose has the PMC approval request before the Community review, in the diagram the PMC approval is in the Creation review which follows the Community review.

[waynebeaton]

The PMC approval occurs during the community review, so that part is just wrong. I'll make sure that they end up in sync. I'm just capturing thoughts at this point.

Here's a revision of the (still-work-in-progress) diagram: