From: Lars Kurth This document has come in effect in June 2011 and will be reviewed periodically
- (see revision sections). The last modification has been made in May
- 2013.
The goals of Xen Project Governance are to:
The Xen Project is a meritocracy. The more you contribute the more responsibility you will earn. Leadership roles in Xen are also merit-based and earned by peer acclaim.
-Sub-projects or teams hosted on Xenproject.org are normally auto-governing - and driven by the people who volunteer for the job. This functions - well for most cases. When more formal decision making and coordination - is required, decisions are taken with a lazy consensus approach: a - few positive votes with no negative vote are enough to get going.
-Voting is done with numbers:
-A negative vote should include an alternative proposal or a detailed - explanation of the reasons for the negative vote. The project community - then tries to gather consensus on an alternative proposal that resolves - the issue. In the great majority of cases, the concerns leading to - the negative vote can be addressed. - -
-Sub-projects and teams hosted on Xenproject.org are not democracies - but meritocracies. In situations where there is disagreement on issues - related to the day-to-day running of the project, Committers and Project - Leads are expected to act as referees and make a decision on behalf - of the community. Referees should however consider whether making a - decision may be divisive and damaging for the community. In such cases, - the committer community of the project can privately vote on an issue, - giving the decision more weight.
-In some rare cases, the lazy consensus approach may lead to the community - being paralyzed. Thus, as a last resort when consensus cannot be achieved - on a question internal to a project, the final decision will be made - by a private majority vote amongst the committers and project lead. - If the vote is tied, the project lead gets an extra vote to break the - tie.
-For questions that affect several projects, committers and project leads - of mature projects will hold a private majority vote. If the vote is - tied, the Xen Project Advisory Board will break - the tie through a casting vote.
-Maintainers own one or several components in the Xen tree. A maintainer - reviews and approves changes that affect their components. It is a - maintainer's prime responsibility to review, comment on, co-ordinate - and accept patches from other community member's and to maintain the - design cohesion of their components. Maintainers are listed in a MAINTAINERS - file in the root of the source tree.
-Committers are Maintainers that are allowed to commit changes into the - source code repository. The committer acts on the wishes of the maintainers - and applies changes that have been approved by the respective maintainer(s) - to the source tree. Due to their status in the community, committers - can also act as referees should disagreements amongst maintainers arise. - Committers are listed on the sub-project's team portal (e.g. - Hypervisor team portal).
+The Xen Project organizes itself into a number of sub-projects, which follow the Project Governance (or @@ -107,16 +64,8 @@ referred to as teams to highlight the collaborative nature of development. For example, each sub-project has a team portal on Xenproject.org.
-Sub-projects and teams hosted on Xenproject.org are managed by a Project - Lead, who also is a committer of the sub-project/team he/she leads. - Project Leads are the public figurehead of the project and is responsible - for the health of the project. Due to their status in the community, - project leads can also act as referees should disagreements amongst - committers of the project arise. The project lead typically also has - write access to resources, such as the web page of a specific project.
The Xen Project Advisory Board consists of +
The Xen Project Advisory Board consists of members who are committed to steering the project to advance its market and technical success, and who serve as positive ambassadors for the project. The Xen Project Advisory Board manages non-technical @@ -124,7 +73,7 @@ marketing and events, and managing the Xen Project trademark. The Advisory Board leaves all technical decisions to the open source meritocracy.
The Xen Project is a Linux Foundation +
The Xen Project is a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. By spreading the @@ -142,6 +91,36 @@ lead or committer of a mature project, a member of the advisory board or the community manager. This ensures that a distinguished community member supports the idea behind the project.
+ +Maintainers own one or several components in the Xen tree. A maintainer + reviews and approves changes that affect their components. It is a + maintainer's prime responsibility to review, comment on, co-ordinate + and accept patches from other community member's and to maintain the + design cohesion of their components. Maintainers are listed in a MAINTAINERS + file in the root of the source tree.
+Committers are Maintainers that are allowed to commit changes into the + source code repository. The committer acts on the wishes of the maintainers + and applies changes that have been approved by the respective maintainer(s) + to the source tree. Due to their status in the community, committers + can also act as referees should disagreements amongst maintainers arise. + Committers are listed on the sub-project's team portal (e.g. + Hypervisor team portal).
+Sub-projects and teams hosted on Xenproject.org are managed by a Project + Lead, who also is a committer of the sub-project/team he/she leads. + Project Leads are the public figurehead of the project and is responsible + for the health of the project. Due to their status in the community, + project leads can also act as referees should disagreements amongst + committers of the project arise. The project lead typically also has + write access to resources, such as the web page of a specific project.
+Making contributions in Xen follows the conventions as they are known in the Linux Kernel community. In summary contributions are made through @@ -154,10 +133,55 @@
More information on making contributions can be found in the following documents:
+ +Sub-projects or teams hosted on Xenproject.org are normally auto-governing + and driven by the people who volunteer for the job. This functions + well for most cases. When more formal decision making and coordination + is required, decisions are taken with a lazy consensus approach: a + few positive votes with no negative vote are enough to get going.
+Voting is done with numbers:
+A negative vote should include an alternative proposal or a detailed + explanation of the reasons for the negative vote. The project community + then tries to gather consensus on an alternative proposal that resolves + the issue. In the great majority of cases, the concerns leading to + the negative vote can be addressed.
+ +Sub-projects and teams hosted on Xenproject.org are not democracies but + meritocracies. In situations where there is disagreement on issues + related to the day-to-day running of the project, Committers and Project + Leads are expected to act as referees and make a decision on behalf + of the community. Referees should however consider whether making a + decision may be divisive and damaging for the community. In such cases, + the committer community of the project can privately vote on an issue, + giving the decision more weight.
+In some rare cases, the lazy consensus approach may lead to the community + being paralyzed. Thus, as a last resort when consensus cannot be achieved + on a question internal to a project, the final decision will be made + by a private majority vote amongst the committers and project lead. + If the vote is tied, the project lead gets an extra vote to break the + tie.
+For questions that affect several projects, committers and project leads + of mature projects will hold a private majority vote. If the vote is + tied, the Xen Project Advisory Board will break + the tie through a casting vote.
+Developers who have earned the trust of maintainers (including the project lead) can be promoted to Maintainer. A two stage mechanism is used
Developers who have earned the trust of committers in their project can through election be promoted to Committer. A two stage mechanism is used
@@ -195,7 +219,7 @@ will try and resolve the situation and reach consensus. Results will be published on the public mailing list. -Projects which lose their project lead are at risk of failing. Should this occur, the project's maintainer community should agree who would want to be/be able to be the new project lead and follow the election @@ -203,15 +227,15 @@
-Sometimes it is necessary to conduct formal voting within the community (outside of elections). Formal votes are necessary when processes and - procedures are introduced or changed, or as part of the + procedures are introduced or changed, or as part of the Project Governance. Who is eligible to vote, depends on whether the scope of a process or procedure is local to a sub-project or team, or whether it affects all sub-projects (or in other words, is global). - Examples of local scope is the Security Policy + Examples of local scope is the Security Policy which applies to the Hypervisor Project only. Examples of global scope are changes to this document or votes outlined in the Project Governance.
@@ -261,8 +285,8 @@ process of project formation will grow into a project proposal. The project proposal will need to satisfy some basic conditions, will be put out for community review and is then put to a vote to all maintainers - and project leads of mature sub-projects hosted on Xenproject.org - following the usual decision making process. + and project leads of mature sub-projects hosted on Xenproject.org following + the usual decision making process.For agreed project proposals, the Xen Project will provide basic infrastructure and the project can get started. Sub-projects in incubation are working towards a set of goals, will get additional support and marketing opportunities @@ -303,8 +327,7 @@
After a review, the requester of the review may decide to withdraw, request a re-review or progress to a vote by arranging with the community manager.
@@ -363,8 +386,7 @@The purpose of the incubation phase is for a project to show that it @@ -449,11 +471,9 @@ from an archived projects section on Xenproject.org
In cases where the project has delivered code into other sub-projects hosted on Xenproject.org, the code will be
@@ -478,6 +498,7 @@