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