Overview
The Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform Top-Level Project (the "Eclipse Test & Performance Project") is an open source collaborative software development project dedicated to providing a robust, extensible, commercial quality, and freely available industry platform intended to reduce the cost and complexity of implementing effective and highly interoperable test & performance tools.

This document describes the composition and organization of the project, roles and responsibilities of the participants, and development process for the project. The project charter is a living document that will be updated to reflect the evolution of the development process over time.

Mission
The mission of the Eclipse Test & Performance Project is to build a generic, extensible, standards-based tool platform upon which software developers can create specialized, differentiated, and interoperable offerings for world class test and performance tools.

Scope
The Eclipse Test & Performance Project will extend the family of Eclipse technologies to provide an open development platform supplying frameworks and services for test and performance tools that are used throughout the lifecycle (e.g., testing, tracing/profiling, tuning, logging, monitoring, analysis, autonomics, administration, etc., but not development tools such as optimizing compilers) and support a spectrum of standalone through highly-distributed and embedded through enterprise computing systems.

The project will also deliver exemplary tools that verify the utility of and illustrate the appropriate use of the platform, support the development and maintenance of the platform itself, and are extensible via documented programmatic interfaces.

Project Management Committee
The Eclipse Test & Performance Project and Projects under its Charter are managed by a small group known as the Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform Project Management Committee (the "PMC").

The PMC is expected to ensure that:

• All Projects operate effectively by providing leadership to guide the Project's overall direction and by removing obstacles, solving problems, and resolving conflicts.
• All Project plans, technical documents and reports are publicly available.
• All Projects operate using open source rules of engagement: meritocracy, transparency, and open participation. These principles work together. Anyone can participate in a Project. This open interaction, from answering questions to reporting bugs to making code contributions to creating designs, enables everyone to recognize and utilize the contributions.

The PMC has the following responsibilities:

• Providing the leadership and vision to guide the Project's overall direction.
• Providing assistance and support to the developers working on the project by removing obstacles, solving problems, and resolving conflicts.
• Ensuring that Project plans are produced, and presenting these plans to the EMO.
• Establishing the development processes and infrastructure needed for the development team to be effective.
• Recommending new Projects to the EMO, and appointing the Project Lead.
• Establishing the initial set of Project committers and establishing the procedures for voting in new committers.
• Helping to ensure that Projects have enough contributors, and helping to fill vacancies in roles.
• Producing "how to get involved" guidelines to help new potential contributors get started.
• Coordinating relationships with other Eclipse Foundation Projects.
• Facilitating code or other donations by individuals or organizations.
• Working with the EMO and Committers to ensure in-bound contributions are made in accordance with the Eclipse Foundation IP Policy.
• Representing the Project to the outside world.

The PMC Lead is appointed by the Board. The initial PMC members are selected by the PMC Lead. Thereafter, to become a member of the PMC, an individual must be nominated by a member of the PMC, and unanimously approved by all PMC members. The goal is to keep the membership of the PMC small.

In the unlikely event that a member of the PMC becomes disruptive to the process or ceases to contribute for an extended period, the member may be removed by unanimous vote of remaining PMC members. PMC members may resign at any time by delivering notice of their resignation to the PMC Lead.

The PMC is responsible for producing and maintaining the project charter. Development must conform to any rules or processes outlined in the charter, so a change to the development process may necessitate a change to the charter. Changes to the Charter must be approved by the Board.

The work of the PMC is shared by the PMC members. All PMC members are expected to contribute actively. In particular, PMC members are expected to take responsibility for overseeing certain areas of work in the project, and reporting to the PMC on these areas.

Active participation in the user newsgroup and the appropriate developer mailing lists is a responsibility of all PMC members, and is critical to the success of the project. PMC members are required to monitor the main project mailing list, and the developer mailing lists for all projects and subsystems they are overseeing.

Requirements Group

The PMC Lead shall establish an Eclipse Test & Performance Project Requirements Group (the "Requirements Group") responsible for gathering, reviewing and categorizing incoming requirements, and proposing a coherent set of themes and priorities that will drive the Project Roadmap.

The PMC Lead will designate the Requirements Group Chair. The Requirements Group shall be comprised of one representative designated by each contributing organization and other individuals designated from time to time by the PMC Lead.

The Requirements Group will accomplish its objectives by working closely with their represented organizations and individuals, the Project development teams, and the ecosystem.

Architecture Group

The PMC Lead shall establish an Eclipse Test & Performance Project Architecture Group (the "Architecture Group") responsible for the development, articulation, and maintenance of the Project architecture and alignment thereof with the Eclipse architecture.

The PMC Lead will designate the Architecture Group Chair and will also designate the Project representative to the Eclipse Architecture Council. The Architecture Group shall be comprised of a subset Project Committers nominated by the Chair and other individuals designated from time to time by the PMC Lead who represent the Project architecture.

The Architecture Group will accomplish its objectives by working closely with the Project development teams and the Eclipse Architecture Council.

Planning Group

The PMC Lead shall establish an Eclipse Test & Performance Project Planning Group (the "Planning Group") responsible for the development and maintenance of a Project Release Plan consistent with the Architecture, supporting the Roadmap, and supported by resource commitments of contributing organizations and individuals.

The PMC Lead will designate the Planning Group Chair and will also designate the Project representative to the Eclipse Planning Council. The Planning Group shall be comprised of one representative designated by each contributing organization and other individuals designated from time to time by the PMC Lead. Additionally, the Requirements Group and Architecture Group chairpersons will be members of the Planning Group.

The Planning Group will accomplish its objectives by working closely with their represented organizations, the Project development teams, and the Eclipse Planning Council.

Roles
The Eclipse Test & Performance Project is a meritocracy -- the more you contribute, and the higher the quality of your contribution, the more you are allowed to do. However with this comes increased responsibility.

Users
Users are the people who use the products that the Project produces. People in this role aren't contributing code, but they are using the products, reporting bugs, and making feature requests and suggestions. Users are encouraged to participate through the user newsgroup(s), asking questions, providing suggestions, and helping other users. Users are also encouraged to report problem reports using the bug tracking system.

Developers
Developers are the people who contribute code, fixes, documentation, or other work that goes into the product. Developers are also encouraged to participate in the user newsgroup(s), and should monitor the developer mailing list associated with their area of contribution. When appropriate, developers may also contribute to development design discussions related to their area of contribution. Developers are expected to be proactive in reporting problems in the bug tracking system.

Committers
Developers who give frequent and valuable contributions to a Project, or a subsystem of a Project (in the case of large Projects), can have their status promoted to that of a "Committer" for that Project or subsystem respectively. A Committer has write access to the source code repository for the associated Project (or subsystem), and gains voting rights allowing them to affect the future of the Project (or subsystem).

In order for a Developer to become a Committer, another Committer for the same Project (or Subsystem) can nominate that Developer or the Developer can ask for it. Once a Developer is nominated, the Committers for the Project (or Subsystem) will vote. If there are at least three or a majority, whichever is less, of positive votes, the Developer is recommended to the PMC for Committer privileges. If the PMC approves, the Developer must sign the Committer Agreement established by the EMO, and the Developer is converted into a Committer and given write access to the source code repository for that Project (or Subsystem). Becoming a Committer is a privilege that is earned by contributing and showing discipline and good judgment. It is a responsibility that should be neither given nor taken lightly. Committers may be asked to represent their respective Project and/or subsystems by membership on the Architecture Group.

At times, Committers may go inactive for a variety of reasons. The decision making process of the project relies on active Committers who respond to discussions and votes in a constructive and timely manner. The PMC is responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the project. A Committer that is disruptive, does not participate actively, or has been inactive for an extended period may have his or her Committer status removed by the PMC.

Active participation in the user newsgroup and the appropriate developer mailing lists is a responsibility of all Committers, and is critical to the success of the project. Committers are required to monitor and contribute to the user newsgroup.

Committers are required to monitor the developer mailing list associated with all Projects and Subsystems for which they have Committer privileges. It is mandatory because Committers must participate in votes (which in some cases require a certain minimum number of votes) and must respond to the mailing list in a timely fashion in order to facilitate the smooth operation of the Project. When a Committer is granted Committer privileges they will be added to the appropriate mailing lists. A Committer must not be unsubscribed from a developer mailing list unless their associated Committer privileges are also removed.

The Committers of a Project or Subsystem vote (+1:'yes', 0:'abstain', -1:'no/veto') to decide which changes may be committed to the master code base of a Project or Subsystem respectively. Three +1 ('yes') with no -1 ('no'/veto') votes are needed to approve a code change. All votes are conducted via the developer mailing list associated with the Project or Subsystem and must be followed by a justification within 24 hours or the veto becomes invalid.

Special rules may be established for Projects or Subsystem with fewer than three Committers. For efficiency, some code changes from some contributors (e.g. feature additions, bug fixes) may be approved in advance, or approved in principle based on an outline of the work, in which case they may be committed first and changed as needed, with conflicts resolved by majority vote of the Committers of the Project or Subsystem, as applicable.

More restrictive rules for committing changes may be established by the PMC near the end of release cycles or for maintenance streams.

Committers are responsible for proactively reporting problems in the bug tracking system, and annotating problem reports with status information, explanations, clarifications, or requests for more information from the submitter. Committers are responsible for updating problem reports when they have done work related to the problem.

Projects
The work under this Top Level Project is further organized into Projects. New Projects must be significant works consistent with the mission of the Top Level Project, be recommended by the PMC, and confirmed by the EMO. Projects can be discontinued by decision of the Board.

When a new Project is created, the PMC nominates a Project lead to act as the technical leader and nominates the initial set of Committers for the Project, and these nominations are approved by the EMO. Project leads are accountable to the PMC for the success of their Project.

See Project Descriptions for additional information on the Projects under this Charter.

Subsystems
The PMC may decide to divide a Project further into Subsystems. If a Project is divided into Subsystems, commit privileges are normally granted at the Subsystem level, and the Committers for a given Subsystem vote on issues specific to that Subsystem. Subsystem are established and discontinued by the PMC. When the PMC creates a Subsystem it appoints a Subsystem lead to act as the technical leader and names the initial set of Committers for the Subsystem. The Subsystem lead is designated as a Committer for the Project and represents the Subsystem in discussions and votes pertaining to the Project as a whole. Subsystem Committers do not participate in votes at the level of the Project as a whole, unless they are also the Subsystem lead.

Ports
For Subsystems that contain platform-specific code, it may be advantageous to allow developers to work on a port of the Subsystem to a new platform without requiring that they already be Committers for the Subsystem. In this case, the main code base is known as the Subsystem "core", and the port code base is known as a Subsystem "port". The decision to set up a port is made by the PMC. When a new port of a Subsystem is created, the PMC appoints a Port Lead, and an initial set of Committers who will have commit and voting privileges specifically for the port. The port is done under the auspices of the core Subsystem, and all Committers for the core Subsystem automatically also have commit and voting privileges on the port. Normally the Subsystem Lead will also be the Port Lead.

Coordinated Release Cycles
All Projects under the Eclipse Test & Performance Project will have coordinated release plans, milestone dates, freeze cycles, builds, and ship dates. Project Leads are responsible for coordinating their respective Projects while the Eclipse Test & Performance Project Planning Group will coordinate across Projects.

The Eclipse Test & Performance Project will typically have release plans coincident with Eclipse Platform releases plus additional more frequent interim releases where appropriate.

Infrastructure
The infrastructure required to support the development process is the responsibility of the PMC. The Eclipse Test & Performance Project will have at least the following:

• Bug Database - Bugzilla database for tracking bugs and feature requests.
• Source Repository -- One or more CVS repositories containing both the master source code and documentation for the Projects.
• Website - A website will contain information about the Project, including documentation, downloads of releases, and this charter.
• General Mailing List - Mailing list for development discussions pertaining to the Project as a whole or that cross Projects. This mailing list is open to the public.
• Project Mailing Lists - Development mailing list for technical discussions and Committer voting related to the Project(s). This mailing list is open to the public.
• Subsystem Mailing Lists -- Development mailing list for technical discussions and Committer voting related to the Subsystem. This mailing list is open to the public.

Development Process
Each Project lead must produce a development plan for the release cycle, and the development plan must be approved by the Eclipse Test & Performance Planning Group.

Each Project must identify, and make available on its web site, the requirements and prioritizations it is working against in the current release cycle. In addition, each Project must post a release plan showing the date and content of the next major release, including any major milestones, and must keep this plan up to date.

The master copy of the code base must reside on the project web site where it is accessible to all developers and committers. Committers must check their changes and new work into the master code base as promptly as possible (subject to any check-in voting rules that may be in effect) in order to foster collaboration among widely distributed groups and so that the latest work is always available to everyone. The PMC is responsible for establishing a release engineering and build process to ensure that builds can be reliably produced on a regular and frequent basis from the master code base and made available for download from the project web site.

The PMC is responsible for establishing the level of testing appropriate for each subproject, and approving the test plans.

All development technical discussions are conducted using the development mailing lists. If discussions are held offline, then a summary should be posted to the mailing list to keep the other committers (and other interested parties) informed.

The PMC may specify additional detailed development process guidelines specific to this Project.

Licensing
All contributions to Projects under this Charter must adhere to the Eclipse Foundation Intellectual Property Policy.