Network Working Group                                         P. Hoffman
Internet-Draft                                            VPN Consortium
Intended status: Informational                            April 29, 2011
Expires: October 31, 2011


            Requirements for a Working Group Milestones Tool
                 draft-ietf-genarea-milestones-tool-00

Abstract

   The IETF intends to provide a new tool to Working Group chairs and
   Area Directors for the creation and updating of milestones for
   Working Groups.  This document describes the requirements for the
   proposed new tool, and it is intended as input to a later activity
   for the design and development of such a tool.

Status of this Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on October 31, 2011.

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.  Introduction

   [RFC2418] describes the guidelines and procedures for operation of
   IETF Working Groups (WGs).  Every WG has milestones that the WG is
   supposed to meet, such as the publication of a particular Internet-
   Draft or the beginning of discussion on a particular topic.  The WG's
   milestones are commonly listed with the WG's charter, although the
   milestones are not formally part of the charter.

   Today, the tasks associated with creating and updating WG milestones
   are performed manually.  Normally, WG chairs send email to their Area
   Director (AD) requesting that milestones be created or updated, or
   saying that one or more milestone has been met.  These messages
   sometimes come as part of charter creation or updating, but are often
   separate (such as if a current milestone is met but there is no
   reason to update the charter itself).  The AD then requests the IETF
   Secretariat to make a change to the database of milestones.

   The IETF has recently approved a set of requirements for a tool that
   helps ADs with the WG chartering and rechartering process
   [CHARTER-TOOL].  During the IESG discussion of that document, it
   became clear that everyone wanted more automation to the milestones
   process, but that there was not a common agreement about how
   milestones management should be handled.  This disagreement was also
   seen in the thread on the WG chairs mailing list that followed.

      Some felt that WG chairs should be able to update their milestones
      without any AD intervention, as long as the responsible AD was
      informed after each change

      Some felt that ADs need to approve every change before the change
      is announced to the community

      Some felt that ADs might approve additions to the list of
      milestones and changing of a milestone's description, but not need
      to approve changing of milestone dates

      Some felt that ADs should be able to select which WGs could update
      their milestones without AD intervention while allowing others to
      do so freely, or for an AD to be able to set a limit on how many
      new milestones a WG could add before the AD had to intervene

   This document, and the discussion it will hopefully engender, is
   intended to bring that discussion to a general consensus among WG
   chairs and ADs for the requirements for the eventual tool.

   The IAOC would like to create a better tool for the tasks of WG
   milestone creation and updating, and this document lists the
   requirements for such a tool.  When complete, this document may be
   used to issue an RFP for the design and development of the tool.
   This document was prepared at the request of the IAOC.

1.1.  Discussion of These Requirements

   This document is being discussed on the wgchairs@ietf.org mailing
   list.  See <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/wgchairs> for more
   information. [[ This subsection is to be deleted before publication.
   ]]


.  Users of the Tool

   This tool can only be used by WG chairs and ADs, not by other members
   of the IETF community.  The tool will use the login and access
   control features that will already be in place from the outcome of
   the tool created by [CHARTER-TOOL].  It is important to note that
   some people are chairs for more than one WG, and everyone must be
   able to use the tool for all of the WGs that they chair.

   Any AD can add or update any milestone for any WG.  Normally, an AD
   would only add or update milestones in the WGs for which they are the
   responsible AD, but ADs are not bound by such a limitation.  WG
   chairs can only add or update milestones for WGs of which they are
   chairs.

   The IETF Secretariat needs to be able to perform the same tasks as
   the WG chairs and ADs in order to fix problems or to make emergency
   changes.

   The database will record the date and person who initiates any
   addition of, or change to, a milestone.


.  Updating and Adding Milestones

   A WG chair needs to see all of the milestones for that chair's WG in
   the tool.  The chair needs to be able to edit any milestone record
   for that chair's WG.  In each record, the chair needs to be able to
   edit the due date, the finished date, the associated Internet-Drafts,
   and the description of the milestone.

   A WG chair needs to be able to add one or more milestone records to
   the database for their WG.  The chair needs to be able to specify the
   due date, the associated Internet-Drafts, and the description of the
   record that he or she is adding.


.  Approval of Milestone Additions and Changes

   [[ The following proposal is based on early input to this draft, and
   may change significantly as the these requirements are discussed. ]]

   The responsible AD for a WG can specify whether any of the following
   actions can be made without the AD approval for milestones associated
   with the WG:

   o  create new milestones

   o  change milestone descriptions

   o  change milestone due dates

   o  change which Internet-Drafts are associated with a milestone

   o  assert that a milestone is completed

   The default settings at the time that this feature is launched will
   be that all actions require AD approval.  These settings apply both
   to additions and changes made by WG chairs and by other ADs.

   After this tool is launched, the IETF Secretariat will no longer need
   to post a change to the database: the tool will do this without
   intervention by the Secretariat.


.  Mapping Milestones to Internet-Drafts

   There is currently no requirement how WG milestones map to Internet-
   Drafts.  While most milestones map one-to-one with Internet-Drafts,
   some milestones do not map to any Internet-Draft (such as those that
   say when a general discussion will begin or finish), and other
   milestones map to multiple Internet-Drafts (such as a milestone that
   covers a topic that has multiple related Internet-Drafts).

   The new tool is required to make mappings between milestones and
   Internet-Drafts explicit, and those drafts must be listed in views of
   the milestone.  This change will require a change to the Datatracker
   database to make such an association.


.  Viewing Changes in Milestones

   Section 5 of [CHARTER-TOOL] describes an extension to the Datatracker
   to allow the IETF community to view, search, and track changes to WG
   charters.  This document updates those requirements to allow the IETF
   community to view, search, and track changes to WG milestones.

   Section 5.1 of [CHARTER-TOOL] is updated to allow searching for any
   text in a milestone's description, as well as for the name of any
   Internet-Draft name that is mapped to any milestone.

   A new capability will be added to the Datatracker that is similar to
   that described in Section 5.2 of [CHARTER-TOOL], but instead of
   showing differences between charters, it shows differences between
   the full set of milestones.  Any time a milestone is added or any of
   its fields changed, the full set of milestones is considered changed.
   Someone should be able to easily compare two full sets of milestones.
   They should also be able to see two more full sets of milestones with
   the differences highlighted.  The tool should show who made each
   change when changes are viewed.  These features should be found in
   the same place as the features described in Section 5.2 of
   [CHARTER-TOOL].

   The tool needs to provide an Atom feed [RFC4287] for the changes in
   the milestones for a WG.  The contents of the feed are the full WG
   record, plus an indication of what changed since the last entry in
   the feed and who made the change.  This feed is different than the
   feed described in Section 5.3 of [CHARTER-TOOL], but it should be
   offered to users in the same places as that feed is offered.


.  IANA Considerations

   None. [[ ...and thus this section can be removed before publication
   as an RFC... ]]


.  Security Considerations

   Creating a new tool for updating the milestones of WGs does not
   affect the security of the Internet in any significant fashion.


.  Acknowledgements

   This document draws heavily on ideas from various WG chairs and ADs
   on the wgchairs@ietf.org mailing list.


.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [CHARTER-TOOL]
              Hoffman, P., "Requirements for a Working Group Charter
              Tool", draft-ietf-genarea-charter-tool (work in progress),
              April 2011.

   [RFC2418]  Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and
              Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC4287]  Nottingham, M., Ed. and R. Sayre, Ed., "The Atom
              Syndication Format", RFC 4287, December 2005.


Author's Address

   Paul Hoffman
   VPN Consortium

   Email: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org