| RE: [eclipse-pmc] Invitation: Board Presentation on March 17, 2008 |
|
All, The time is quickly approaching
for this board meeting on Monday, March 17th at EclipseCon. Could
you please: a)
Let us know if
someone will be able to represent your PMC physically at the meeting or if a
conference phone is required. b)
Let us know who will
be representing your PMC. Also please recall that the
Board would like to receive your written report one week in advance. If you have any questions,
please let us know. This is the first time we’ve tried this, so a little experimentation
and flexibility will be required to make this work well for everyone involved. Thanks! From:
eclipse-pmc-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:eclipse-pmc-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Mike Milinkovich Eclipse PMC, Tools PMC, 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 Eclipse PMC to present to the Board at our
face-to-face meeting on at EclipseCon on Monday, March 17, 2008. There is no
need for travel, as we can arrange for a conference telephone. However, I am
hoping that since it is at EclipseCon that at least some of you can join us in
person. 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 |