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List: gentoo-sparc
Subject: [Fwd: [gentoo-dev] *IMPORTANT* top-level management structure!]
From: Kumba <kumba () gentoo ! org>
Date: 2003-06-25 2:04:17
[Download RAW message or body]
I thought this would be relevant information for people not subscribed
to the gentoo-dev mailing list, but participating in sub projects in our
archs (i.e. sparc32/64 for sparc, and various mips things for mips).
--Kumba
["[gentoo-dev] *IMPORTANT* top-level management structure!" (message/rfc822)]
Hi guys,
We are all painfully aware of the chronic communication, coordination and
planning issues that are a direct result of the massive growth of this
project. The primary victim of this growth has been the release of
Gentoo Linux 1.4, as well as all of our sanity.
Kurt and I have developed a comprehensive plan which we hope to get in place
*this week* to address all of these issues. A draft of the plan is below. It
is long, but *ALL* developers need to read it in its *ENTIRETY* and
understand why we need to move from a unstructured community development
model to a model that incorporates the best possible software development
and management practices. This is the first critical step in making this
happen. Being better organized is the only way we can effectively grow
while improving the quality of Gentoo. Enough said, please read.
Gentoo top-level management structure proposal, recursive implementation
========================================================================
Authors: Daniel Robbins and Kurt Lieber
*** DRAFT *** DRAFT *** DRAFT *** DRAFT *** DRAFT *** DRAFT *** DRAFT
This is a draft. But I want to get this finalized and in place by Thursday
if we can. We are simply growing too fast to not get this in place within
days.
(Note: see "manager responsibility #9" to understand the recursive nature
of this proposal.)
What is the purpose of this proposal?
-------------------------------------
The purpose of this proposal is to solve chronic management, coordination
and communication issues in the Gentoo project. In particular, currently we
have no clearly defined top-level management structure, and no official,
regular meetings to communicate status updates between developers serving
in critical roles. In general, most communication takes place on irc and
irregularly via email. There is also little to no accountability, even
at a high level, to complete projects on time.
Because of this current state of affairs, it is difficult to set goals and
track the status of projects. This lack of communication and coordination
also makes it difficult for top-level developers to manage their own
projects. In addition, we have the other chronic problem of not having
clearly-defined roles and scopes of executive decision-making authority for
top-level developers, which results in many top-level developers doubting
that they even have the authority to manage their own projects and
sub-projects. While this has *never* been the intention of top-level
developers, it is the unfortunate result of an unstructured development
process: no one knows what is going on, and everyone defers to the Chief
Architect for all executive decisions.
Clearly, a plan is needed to swiftly and permanently address these issues by
increasing communication, coordination, and accountability. Roles and scopes
of executive decision-making authority need to be defined for top developers
so that they have a clear mandate as well as accountability to manage their
projects and thus ensure their projects complete their appointed work
efficiently and on-schedule.
How do we fix this?
-------------------
This proposal suggests fixing this issue by creating an official top-level
management structure. This management structure will consist of the chief
architect and a group of developers that will be given the title of
"Top-level managers." Top-level managers will be accountable for the
projects they manage, and be responsible for communicating the status of
their projects to the rest of the top-level managers and chief architect,
among other things detailed later in this document.
All the top-level projects in the Gentoo project will be clearly defined,
including with goals, sub-projects, members, roadmap and schedules. The
"Hardened Gentoo" page at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/ is a
excellent example of such a top-level project definition.
Certain executive decision-making authority will be granted to these
projects, as agreed upon by the top-level managers and project members.
Then, a top-level manager or managers will be officially adopt projects.
These managers will be responsible for tracking the status of the project,
ensuring that the project meets targets and is generally managed properly.
Manager responsibilities are described in detail later in this document.
The operational manager of each top-level project will also be responsible
to report the status of the project in regular weekly status meetings in
which all top-level managers will participate. This regular communication
will allow proper coordination, goal-setting and scheduling to take place.
Types of management
-------------------
For top-level projects, there are currently two possible types of managers.
Each project must have at least one manager of each type, although one
person may serve both roles. The first type of manager is the operational
manager, who is granted executive authority for the day-to-day running of
the project. Because this person is directly involved in the day-to-day
running of the project, this person has the responsibility to communicate
project status to the rest of the top-level management team.
The other type of manager is the tactical manager. The tactical manager has
executive decision-making authority over the long-term strategic direction
of the project. This manager's involvement in the day-to-day operations of
the project is limited. Both tactical and operational management are equally
important for a successful project.
Management team
---------------
Proposed initial top-level managment team is as follows:
Top-level managers (in no particluar order):
Seemant Kulleen (seemant)
Jay Pfeifer (pfeifer)
Joshua Brindle (method)
Kurt Lieber (klieber)
Nick Jones (carpaski)
Pieter Van den Abeele (pvdabeel)
Jon Portnoy (avenj)
Chief Architect
Daniel Robbins (drobbins)
Management charter
------------------
1) Constructive, professional communication: All communication should be
focused on improving the management of Gentoo projects, should be
constructive in nature and should be shared in a friendly, professional
manner.
2) Accountability to peers: Allow fellow members of this list to hold us
accountable to follow-through on projects and meet deadlines. Keep fellow
members accountable.
3) Management of projects: empower managers to have the authority and
strategic direction necessary to properly manage thier projects and efforts
to ensure projects complete their appointed work on time.
4) Results: our expectation is that our efforts, when properly executed,
will result in the Gentoo project's ability to meet deadlines, have much
better communication and coordination throughout the entire project, higher
overall quality and a more positive experience for all.
Manager responsibilities
------------------------
Every top-level Gentoo project will have a clearly defined scope, and
clearly defined and explicit executive decision-making authority that will
be granted to managers of the project to exercise and/or delegate as they
see fit. Both the scope and any necessary decision-making authority must be
agreed upon by both the chief architect and project members. The scope and
executive authority of a project can be expanded over time as required as
approved by the top level managers.
In addition to decision-making authority, managers have the following
responsibilities:
1) Keep a complete list of all projects and efforts you are managing,
and associated gentoo.org project page up-to-date
2) Manage and track the status of these efforts. This includes active
direction as well as passive tracking of progress.
3) Define clear goals, roadmaps and timelines (preliminary if necessary) for
every effort.
4) Proactively identify efforts that have problems and need help.
5) Ensure that your efforts are completed on-time.
6) Remain focused. Make sure that you are not managing more than you can handle.
7) Fulfill formal communication and coordination responsibilities required by
top-level managers (weekly meetings, etc.)
8) Fulfill formal communication and coordination responsibilities required
by individual efforts (project meetings, communication with project members,
etc.) This is *important* -- our management of projects means that we
have the responsibility not only to communicate with our peers but
also those who we are managing. This communication should be frequent,
have a formal component (planned meetings, official status updates,
etc.) and model good management practices to members of our teams.
9) *RECURSIVE FUNCTIONALITY*: When possible, implement these management
practices for *sub*-projects (define managers, clear sub-project goals,
grant executive authority) with you serving as primary authority.
gentoo-managers list
====================
The gentoo-managers list will be created as the official email communications
channel for all top-level Gentoo Linux managers.
The tenative plan for top-level management coordination is as follows:
Monday full status email:
Every Monday afteroon, every member of this list posts a status summary of
projects/efforts that they are managing, as well as any items that they
would like to discuss "live" on IRC in the upcoming "live" meeting.
If you are unable to attend the "live" IRC meeting, an email to this
list mentioning your inability to attend should be posted by Monday
afternoon or before.
The goal of the Monday afternoon email is to get every other top-level
manager up to speed on the status of your efforts and any efforts
managed by you, and to have a tenative meeting agenda in place for the
"live" IRC meeting.
Monday IRC chat:
On Monday evening, we convene on irc for a "live" meeting.
The goal of this meeting isn't to provide status updates on our
projects, but to work out any outstanding hands-on issues relating to the
management of Gentoo Linux. These issues can include:
1) Assignment of unmanaged projects
2) Resolving critical, time-sensitive problems
3) Trying to "fix" projects that are having trouble staying on-target
4) Sharing new ideas about how to coordinate our efforts better
5) Finding ways to improve our management of projects
The goal of this live IRC chat is to provide a regular forum to resolve
tricky issues that benefit from real-time, "live" discussion. Generally,
this meeting should last no more than one hour if possible. Generally,
new ideas and practices should be discussed in this live meeting, with
the list being used for status updates and coordinated resolution of
critical issues.
(Note: inability to attend due to time zone can be addressed by posting
the full IRC log to gentoo-managers and allowing non-attending members
to post ideas, comments and follow-ups)
Thursday update:
Every Thursday afternoon, every member of this list posts a "status
update" email, giving all members a quick, general update on any efforts
currently underway. This allows for some fairly rapid feedback for any
efforts that were started the previous Monday, and an opportunity to
recover from any efforts that have fallen off-target since the previous
Monday.
This email need not be exhaustive, but may be if necessary.
The goal of this update is to allow any problems with our projects to be
discussed and shared before the weekend, so that an adequate solution or
interim solution can be found before the weekend.
top-level projects and *preliminary* top-level managerial assignments below.
Note that *sub-project* managers are generally not listed, but will be
defined in time. We are starting with the top levels first.
gentoo-linux:
Gentoo Linux
tactical manager: drobbins, seemant
operational manager: seemant
back-up: avenj
sub-projects:
x86-stable: Gentoo Linux x86 stable branch
x86-unstable: Gentoo Linux x86 unstable branch
amd64
ppc
alpha
sparc
hppa
etc.
kernel:
Kernel development
tactical manager: pfeifer (lolo?)
operational manager: pfeifer (lolo?)
sub-projects:
x86
amd64
ppc
alpha
sparc
hppa
etc.
gentoo-alt:
Alternate operating system platform/special-purpose projects
tactical managers: drobbins, pvdabeel
operational manager: pvdabeel
sub-projects:
gentoo-bsd
gentoo-macos
livecd: Gentoo Linux LiveCD technology efforts
hardened:
Hardened Gentoo -- efforts related to integrated security
techologies into Gentoo Linux.
tactical manager: method
operational manager: method
page: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/
sub-projects:
selinux
propolice
systrace
hardened-sources
grsecurity
tools:
Useful Gentoo scripts and tools (for user or developer use, possibly
Portage-related)
tactical manager: pvdabeel
operational manager: pvdabeel
subprojects:
keychain
dynfw
eperl
devrel:
General development management, developer relations
tactical managers: seemant, drobbins
operational manager: avenj
back-up: klieber
subprojects:
newdev: Recruiting of developers, enforcement of recruitment policy
devops: Day-to-day oversight of Gentoo development, commits
releng:
Managing and coordinating release process
tactical manager: drobbins, seemant
operational manager: avenj
subprojects:
build: Management of stage/package building efforts on all architectures
install-doc: install documentation
qa:
Explicit, proactive quality control efforts
tactical manager: drobbins
operational manager: seemant
subprojects:
bugs: Overseeing bug distribution/assigment/completion and responsiveness
security: Manage tracking and application of security fixes to packages
policy-doc: policy documentation
pr:
Public relations efforts, contact with distrowatch.com, etc.
tactical manager: drobbins
operational manager: klieber
back-up: seemant
subprojects:
partners: Gentoo partnerships, liaison(s) to metapkg, Gentoo Games, Inc.
shows: Planning and organization for trade shows
gwn: Gentoo Weekly News
portage:
Portage development, maintenance and new features implementation
tactical manager: drobbins
operational manager: carpaski
subprojects:
package-research: Research into new packaging technologies and capabilities
managers: carpaski, drobbins, pvdabeel
infrastructure:
tactical manager: klieber
operational manager: klieber
gentoo.org Mirrors, servers, email, hosting, server security
subprojects:
mirrors: ftp, web and rsync mirrors
web: gentoo.org Web site design and related technology
doc: general documentation
--
Daniel Robbins
Chief Architect, Gentoo Linux
http://www.gentoo.org
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