This is an example governance document for projects that consist of a group of smaller, semi-independent projects. See GOVERNANCE.md for more information. Thanks to the Konveyor Project for portions of the text below.
This is a template document for CNCF projects that requires editing
before it is ready to use. Read the markdown comments, <!-- COMMENT -->, for
additional guidance. The raw markdown uses TODO to identify areas that
require customization. Replace [TODO: PROJECTNAME] with the name of your project.
This Template assumes that you are using the Contributor Ladder template as well.
The [TODO:PROJECTNAME] umbrella project is composed as a federation of individual projects, some independent and some interdependent, each of which focuses on some aspect of [TODO:Goals of umbrella project]. Our governance reflects this federated structure.
All active Maintainers of each subproject, as defined in the Contributor Ladder, are members of that project's Maintainer Committee, which governs that project. The subproject's Maintainer Committee is responsible for the following project governance activities:
- Ensuring that the subproject creates and publishes regular releases;
- Holding regular, subproject-wide discussions on issues and planning;
- Monthly review of project contributors for advancement on the Contributor Ladder;
- Making final decisions on subproject changes that involve controversial trade-offs;
- Responding to security compromise reports;
- Supporting the Code of Conduct within their subproject and referring violations to the Code of Conduct Committee.
Additionally, the project's Maintainer Committee will select, by majority vote, one representative to the Steering Committee. This representative need not be a member of the subproject's Maintainer Committee, and will be replaced or renewed by the committee annually.
Should a member of the Maintainer Committee cease being active in the subproject, violate the Code Of Conduct, or need to be removed for some other reason, they may be removed by a 2/3 majority vote of the other Committee members, or a majority vote of the Steering Committee.
The overall [TODO:PROJECTNAME] umbrella project is governed by a Steering Committee, which is selected as follows:
- One Maintainer representative from each member subproject
- [TODO:Number] general "Community Representatives"
The Steering Committee is responsible for the following tasks, any of which may be delegated to a person or group selected by the committee:
- Reviewing and deciding on new projects to add to [TODO:PROJECTNAME]
- Arbitrating inter-project disagreements
- Selecting the Code of Conduct Committee and ratifying CoC judgements
- Removing projects which have become inactive
- Acting on escalated security or code quality issues
- Resolving issues that individual projects are unable to resolve
- Administering project infrastructure, intellectual property, and resources
- Determining overall direction for advocacy and marketing
- Issuing statements on behalf of [TODO:PROJECTNAME] and its subprojects
- Reviewing and approving Contributor Ladder advancement for participants who work on the overall umbrella project
In performance of these duties, the Steering Committee will hold a monthly meeting that is open to all contributors. The Committee may hold additional, closed meetings in order to discuss non-public issues such as security exploits, CoC enforcement, and legal questions.
Steering Committee members are expected to advocate for all of [TODO:PROJECTNAME], not just certain projects or corporate sponsors, comply with and support the Code of Conduct, and be professional and compassionate in all of their dealings with project participants.
The Community Representative(s) will be elected by the collective Members of all subprojects, as defined in the Contributor Ladder. They will be elected annually.
Once per year, the Steering Committee will select between two and three Election Officers to run the annual election and sets the dates for the election. Election Officers should be project Members in good standing, not running for election themselves, and represent more than one project employer.
These officers will update the list of eligible Members according to project records, send out announcements, and conduct the election. The election starts with a call for nominations, which lasts for at least one week, and will include a period for project Members to request changes to their voting status. Candidates may nominate themselves, or they may be nominated by their colleagues.
The election itself will last for at least one week, and is conducted as a preference election online, using a method such as Condorcet or IRV. The Election Officers will announce the selected candidates at the next regular community meeting.
In order to review and enforce the Code of Conduct, the Steering Committee selects
[TODO:Number, suggest "3 to 5"] people to be on the Code of Conduct Committee.
These individuals will be chosen based on their community management and code of conduct
experience, with diverse representation across the committee, including employer, gender,
race, background, and region of the world. To avoid fatigue, the Steering Committee will
replace at least [TODO:Number] member of the CoC Committee each year. Members of the
committee do not need to be members of [TODO:PROJECTNAME] if they have sufficient other
expertise.
The CoC Committee will receive reports of conduct violations confidentially, and will discuss them in closed meetings. If a report is determined to be a violation, they will recommend action on it appropriate to the scale, nature, and context of the violation, from requiring an apology, up to expulsion of an individual from the project. In the event that a contributor is to be demoted or expelled, the CoC Committee will forward this recommendation to the Steering Committee who will ratify it in a closed meeting. Should a member of the Steering Committee be the offender or the reporter, this recommendation will instead be forwarded to the CNCF staff for final arbitration.
During the monthly Steering meeting, any project member may recommend projects to become part of [TODO:PROJECTNAME]. These projects should have the following characteristics:
- Have a mission of [TODO:Goals of umbrella project];
- Are appropriately licensed and governed or willing to become so;
- Are under active development;
- Consist of high quality code and designs.
Before submitting an application to the Steering Committee, the applying project must hold an internal consensus vote of all major contributors to join [TODO:PROJECTNAME]. The Steering Committee will then review the application, and decide whether or not to accept it. If it is accepted, the Committee will assign one person to assist the subproject in their integration.
In some cases, promising but incomplete projects may be accepted as Experimental Subprojects. Such Experimental Subprojects will be considered part of [TODO:PROJECTNAME], but will be marked as Experimental on the website and in code repositories, in order to inform users. Experimental Subproject Members are considered Members of [TODO:PROJECTNAME], but the subproject is not entitled to a representative on the Steering Committee. Steering will review Experimental Subprojects at least twice per year to determine if they have matured to full subproject status.
In some cases, projects will become inactive or unmaintainable, or wish to separate from [TODO:PROJECTNAME]. Any Steering Committee member may propose removal of a project on these grounds, and Steering can confirm this with a majority vote.
Projects which still have contributors will then be moved to a repository in their own namespace. Projects which have ceased all activity are moved to a [TODO:Name of archive namespace] namespace.