Document Shepherding from Working Group Last Call to Publication
RFC 4858

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
• History

• Versions
• 09

Network Working Group                                       H. Levkowetz
Request for Comments: 4858                                      Ericsson
Category: Informational                                         D. Meyer
                                              Cisco/University of Oregon
                                                               L. Eggert
                                                                   Nokia
                                                               A. Mankin
                                                                May 2007

    Document Shepherding from Working Group Last Call to Publication

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

   This document describes methodologies that have been designed to
   improve and facilitate IETF document flow processing.  It specifies a
   set of procedures under which a working group chair or secretary
   serves as the primary Document Shepherd for a document that has been
   submitted to the IESG for publication.  Before this, the Area
   Director responsible for the working group has traditionally filled
   the shepherding role.

Levkowetz, et al.            Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 4858          Document Shepherding to Publication           May 2007

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Process Description  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     3.1.  Document Shepherd Write-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.2.  Document Shepherding during AD Evaluation  . . . . . . . .  9
     3.3.  Document Shepherding during IESG Evaluation  . . . . . . . 10
   4.  Shepherding the Document's IANA Actions  . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  Document Shepherding after IESG Approval . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   6.  When Not to Use the Document Shepherding Process . . . . . . . 15
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   9.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   Appendix A.  Example Document Announcement Write-Ups . . . . . . . 18
     A.1.  Example Document Announcement Write-Up for
           draft-ietf-avt-rtp-midi-format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     A.2.  Example Document Announcement Write-Up for
           draft-ietf-imss-ip-over-fibre-channel  . . . . . . . . . . 19

Levkowetz, et al.            Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 4858          Document Shepherding to Publication           May 2007

1.  Introduction

   Early in 2004, the IESG undertook several experiments aimed at
   evaluating whether any of the proposed changes to the IETF document
   flow process would yield qualitative improvements in document
   throughput and quality.  One such experiment, referred to as the
   "PROTO process" or "PROTO" (because it was created by the "PROcess
   and TOols" or PROTO [PROTO] team), is a set of methodologies designed
   to involve working group chairs or secretaries more directly in their
   documents' approval life cycle.  In particular, the PROTO team
   focused on improvements to the part of a document's life cycle that
   occurs after the working group and document editor have forwarded it
   to the IESG for publication.

   By the end of 2004, the IESG had evaluated the utility of the PROTO
   methodologies based on data obtained through several pilot projects
   that had run throughout the year, and subsequently decided to adopt
   the PROTO process for all documents and working groups.  This
   document describes this process.

   The methodologies developed and piloted by the PROTO team focus on
   the working group chair or secretary as the primary Document
   Shepherd.  The primary objective of this document shepherding process
   is to improve document-processing throughput and document quality by
   enabling a partnership between the Responsible Area Director and the
   Document Shepherd.  In particular, this partnership has the explicit
   goal of enfranchising the Document Shepherd while at the same time
   offloading a specific part of the follow-up work that has
   traditionally been responsibility of the Responsible Area Director.
   The Responsible Area Director has tens or many tens of documents to
   follow, while the Document Shepherd has only a few at a time.
   Flowing the responsibility to the working group level can ensure more