From: Mike Milinkovich
[mailto:mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11,
2008 5:11 PM
To: 'WTP PMC'; 'DSDP PMC list'
Cc:
'eclipse.org-board'
Subject: Invitation: Board Presentation on
September 17, 2008
The Board of Directors of the Eclipse Foundation has asked
the EMO to begin inviting PMCs to provide updates to the Board at least
annually. I would like to invite the WTP and DSDP PMCs to present to the Board
at our face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, September 17, 2008.
There is no need for travel, as we can arrange for a
conference telephone. However, if someone is willing to represent the PMC at
the meeting please let me know.
Setting Expectations:
In addition to the report outline below, here is a little
background on what the Board is looking for:
1.
The primary goal of this interaction should be to
increase board awareness of what is happening in the projects today and
tomorrow. These updates should be a positive experience for the
projects, an opportunity to inform that Board about the issues they are facing
and what the Eclipse Foundation can do to help them be more
successful.
2.
Expect that the call or presentation with the Board
will be approximately 30 minutes in length.
3.
The PMC report to the Board should be a written
report. Slides may be optionally provided, but are not
required.
4.
PMCs will be given one calendar quarter notice of when
their report shall be presented to the Board.
5.
Each PMC will be invited to report once per calendar
year.
6.
The written report should be provided at least one
full week prior to the board meeting.
7.
The report will be a public document available both
via the public Board minutes and the project’s web content.
8.
PMCs manage top-level projects which are, in turn,
comprised of projects. The PMC will have the discretion to report to the Board
at the level of detail it believes most appropriate. E.g. some PMCs may wish
to present themselves as a cohesive whole. Other may wish to provide reports
on each of their sub-projects.
9.
The report will be presented to the Board by the PMC
(co-)leader(s).
10. When
actually presenting to the Board:
a.
The PMC leaders will typically be on the phone, unless
it is easy for them to be in person due to circumstances (e.g. the board
meeting is at EclipseCon)
b.
Board members will have the opportunity to ask
questions. They will be asked to please try to resist the temptation to ask
technical questions J
Subsequent to the presentation
to the Board, it would in my opinion be also extremely beneficial if these
reports were also presented to the Membership in the next quarterly membership
meeting/conference call. We can talk about that separately.
Report Outline:
1.
Review of project scope and charter, and a description
of where within the defined scope work is actually taking place. The PMC
should also provide some guidance as to whether the scope and charter
documents should be revised. Things may have changed since the charter was
approved by the Board.
2.
A high-level review of technical progress, strategy
and release plans.
3.
Self-assessment of the performance of the project
under the following headings (inspired by the Three Communities section of the
Development Process):
·
Performance as an Eclipse open source project,
with specific self assessments on the following:
i.
Openness
ii.
Transparency
iii.
Meritocracy
iv.
Diversity
v.
Compliance with the Purposes (e.g. are they
successfully “…supplying frameworks and
exemplary, extensible tools..”?)
·
End user community and adoption. E.g. are there
lots of downloads, bugs, contributors, newsgroup postings, …? Note that I
believe that while the absolute numbers are interesting, the more important
data-point is the project’s assessment of how those numbers compare to their
own expectations for the project.
·
Commercial community and adoption. E.g. is the
technology from the project showing up in products.
4.
Compliance with the Roadmap
5.
Board Assistance: What are the areas where the Board
could be helping the PMC be more effective? E.g. Explain the “top three”
problems that the Board needs to solve for the Project in the next year?
(e.g., IP backlog, improving diversity, whatever).
·
The Board will provide a written response to
the issues raised.
6.
Noteworthy: What are the things about the project not
covered above which the Board should know?
Mike
Milinkovich
Executive
Director
Eclipse Foundation,
Inc.
Office:
+1.613.224.9461 x228
Mobile:
+1.613.220.3223
mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx
blog: http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/mike
