path: root/glep-0004.rst

---
GLEP: 4
Title: Gentoo top-level management structure proposal
Author: Daniel Robbins <drobbins@gentoo.org>
Type: Informational
Status: Replaced
Version: 1
Created: 2003-06-24
Last-Modified: 2017-11-09
Post-History: 2003-06-30
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Replaced-By: 39
---

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 [#Hardened]_ is an 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 strategic 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 strategic and operational management are equally
important for a successful project.


Management team
===============

Proposed initial top-level management team is as follows (in no
particular order):

* Seemant Kulleen (seemant)
* Jay Pfeifer (pfeifer)
* Joshua Brindle (method)
* Kurt Lieber (klieber)
* Nick Jones (carpaski)
* Pieter Van den Abeele (pvdabeel)
* Jon Portnoy (avenj)

In addition to Daniel Robbins, serving as Chief Architect.


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, or that any efforts that
   are behind-schedule are reported in a timely manner.

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**: At an appropriate time, 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 metaprojects
======================

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, then recursing
downwards.

::

	gentoo-linux:
		Gentoo Linux
		strategic 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
		strategic 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
		strategic 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.
		strategic 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)
		strategic manager: pvdabeel
		operational manager: pvdabeel
		subprojects:
			keychain
			dynfw
			eperl

	devrel:
		General development management, developer relations
		strategic 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
		strategic 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
		strategic 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.
		strategic 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
		strategic manager: drobbins
		operational manager: carpaski
		subprojects:
			package-research: Research into new packaging technologies and capabilities
			managers: carpaski, drobbins, pvdabeel

	infrastructure:
		strategic 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


References and Footnotes
========================

.. [#Hardened] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/hardened/


Copyright
=========

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Unported License.  To view a copy of this license, visit
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