OpenSolaris ARC Process Proposal

From Genunix

Background reading

Some of the things that I expect that this project will need to contemplate, address and/or define are:

1. For context and understanding:
   • How does the Sun ARC system operate today?
   • What was the ARC/dev process that was developed as part of the OS.o community launch?
   • What might that look like in practice?
   • What other development processes are in use in the community?
   • What roles exist in the OS.o community?
   • How do they relate to the development and ARC processes?
   • What workflows exist in the OS.o community today?
   • How do they relate to the development and ARC processes?
2. Who should "do" ARC? When and how long?
3. Who/what should "be" ARCd? When and how often?
4. Who consumes the output of the ARC process?
   • What are those artifacts?
   • Are ARC decisions binding or merely advisory?
   • Who decides?
5. Not all CGs/Projects have the same needs.
   • What interactions are expected or desired between the Consolidation CGs, the "other" CGs, Projects, the various Distros, the Architecture Community and this thing we call the "ARC"?
6. What do the terms "do", "be" and "ARC" mean as used above?

Brainstorming Area

Assertions that might be true

1. Not all OS.o CG's will benefit from the ARC process
   • CGs that are "Consolidation like" will find value in the ARC process
   • CGs that are more SIG-like may not
   • This is expected and OK
2. For the Consolidation-like CGs,
   • CG's are the equivalent of Steering Committees for their Consolidations - they are responsible for roadmaps and strategic direction setting. They get to decide the "do we want this project in our source tree" question.
   • CGs create or charter branches or instances of their Consolidation source tree
     • The CGs are expected to charter and manage 1 or more "release branches" of their source repository (this is what makes them "Consolidations")
     • The ARC Release Taxonomy is used to describe what kinds of changes can be integrated into a branch,
     • I expect that this will be done by creating a Project for each consolidation instance using something like the Consolidation Charter
   • The Project creation process is essentially the same as the 1-pager submission process, and should be in alignment
   • Not all projects will result in something being integrated into the CG's source repository.