OpenStack DefCore Process 2015A
================================

Status: Approved
Replaces: none

This document describes the DefCore process required by the OpenStack
bylaws and approved by the OpenStack Technical Committee and Board.

Expected Time line:
---------------------------------------

+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| Time Frame | Milestone | Activities                         | Lead By   |
+============+===========+====================================+===========+
| -3 months  | S-3       | "Preliminary” draft (from current) | DefCore   |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| -2 months  | S-2       | ID new Capabilities                | Community |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| -1 month   | S-1       | Score Capabilities                 | DefCore   |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| Summit     | S         | "Solid" draft                      | Community |
+            +           +------------------------------------+-----------+
|            |           | Advisory/Deprecated items selected | DefCore   |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| +1 month   | S+1       | Self-testing                       | Vendors   |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| +2 months  | S+2       | Test Flagging                      | DefCore   |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+
| +3 months  | S+3       | Approve Guidance                   | Board     |
+------------+-----------+------------------------------------+-----------+

Note: DefCore may accelerate the process to correct errors and omissions.

Process Definition
--------------------------------------

The DefCore Guideline process has two primary phases: Draft and Review.
During the Draft phase (A), the DefCore Committee is working with community
leaders to update and score the components of the guideline.  During the
Review phase (B), general community and vendors have an opportunity to
provide input and check the guidelines (C) against actual implementations.
Review phase ends with Board approval of the draft guideline (D).

This section provides specific rules and structure for each phase.

NOTE: To ensure continuity of discussion, process components defined below
must _not_ reuse numbers in future revisions.  The numbering pattern
follows draft, section and sub-item numbering, e.g.: 2015A.B2.2.  This
requirement may create numbering gaps in future iterations that will help
indicate changes.

Guidelines Draft Phase (A)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Starting: S-3

A1. New Guidelines Start From Previous Guidelines

  1. New Guidelines start from the previous Board approved document.
  2. New Guidelines are given the preliminary name of the target year and
     .next.  (ref section D4)

A2. Community Groups Tests into Capabilities

  1. DefCore Committee coordinates community activities with the Technical
     Leadership to revise the capabilities based on current technical needs
     and functionality.
  2. Capabilities must correspond to projects which are part of the
     "TC-approved release" as designated by the TC (see bylaws of the
     Foundation, section 4.1(b)(iii)).
  3. Groupings may change between iterations.
  4. Tests must have unique identifiers that are durable across releases
     and changes in grouping.
  5. Tests must be under OpenStack Technical Committee governance.
  6. The DefCore committee will provide the test groupings in JSON format
     for scoring.
  7. The DefCore committee will provide a human-readable summary of
     the Guideline generated from the JSON version.

A3. DefCore Collects Recommendations for Designated Sections

  1. Designated Sections will not be removed without being deprecated in the
     previous Guideline.
  2. Designated Sections will not be added without being advisory in the
     previous Guideline.
  3. Designated Sections will not be added or be made advisory unless the
     corresponding code base is designated as part of the "TC-approved release"
     by the Technical Committee (see bylaws of the Foundation, section
     4.1(b)(iii)).
  4. Technical leadership may, but is not required to, assist DefCore with
     defining advisory sections for projects that have advisory or required
     capabilities.
  5. Designated Sections may be sufficiently defined for Guidelines using
     general descriptions.
  6. DefCore will present A3.4 descriptions to the Board for approval.
  7. Technical leadership may, but is not required to, provide more specific
     details describing the Designated Sections for a project.
  8. Designated Sections will be included in the JSON Guideline.

A4. DefCore Committee identifies required capabilities

  1. DefCore uses Board approved DefCore scoring criteria to evaluate
     capabilities.
  2. DefCore needs Board approval to change scoring
     criteria.
  3. Scoring criteria factor or weights cannot change after Draft is
     published.
  4. DefCore identifies cut-off score for determining that a
     capability is required.
  5. Capabilities will not be removed without being deprecated in the
     previous Guideline.
  6. Capabilities will not be added without being advisory in the previous
     Guideline.

A5. Foundation Staff recommends OpenStack Components and OpenStack Platform Scope

  1. Foundation Staff recommends capabilities to include in each OpenStack
     Component.
  2. Foundation Staff recommends which Components are required for
     the OpenStack Platform.

A6. Additional Capabilities and Tests

  1. DefCore will work with the community to define new capabilities.
  2. Test grouping for new capabilities will be included in the DefCore
     documents.
  3. DefCore will publish a list of missing capabilities and capabilities with
     inadequate test coverage.

A7. DefCore Committee creates recommendation for Draft.

  1. DefCore Committee coordinates activities to create draft.
  2. DefCore Committee may choose to ignore recommendations with documented
     justification.

Guidelines Review Phase (B)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Starting: Summit

B1. All Reference Artifacts are reviewed via Gerrit

  1. Draft Guideline
  2. Designated sections
  3. Test-Capability groupings
  4. Flagged Test List
  5. Capability Scoring criteria and weights
  6. Not in Gerrit: Working materials (spreadsheets, etc)

B2. Presentation of Draft Guidelines for Review

  1. DefCore will present Draft Guidelines to the Board for review.
  2. DefCore will distribute Draft Guidelines to the community for review.
  3. Foundation Staff will provide Draft Guidelines to vendors for review.
  4. A link to the Gerrit document must be provided with the review materials.

B3. Changes to Guideline made by Gerrit Review Process

  1. Community discussion including vendors must go through Gerrit.
  2. All changes to draft must go through Gerrit process.
  3. DefCore will proxy for users who do not participate in the Gerrit process
     with attribution.

B4. For Gerrit reviews, DefCore CoChairs act as joint PTLs

  1. Board committee members of DefCore serve as "core" reviewers (+2).
  2. Requests for changes must be submitted as patches by the requesting
     party.
  3. DefCore Committee members may proxy change requests as long as the
     requesting party is explicitly acknowledged.

Community Review & Vendor Self-Test (C)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Starting: S and continues past S+3

C1. Vendor Self-Tests

  1. Vendors are responsible for executing tests identified by the
     DefCore committee.
  2. The Foundation may, but is not required to, provide tooling for
     running tests.
  3. The Foundation may, but is not required to, define a required
     reporting format.
  4. Self-test results may be published by Vendors in advance of Foundation
     review, but must be clearly labeled as "Unofficial Results - Not Yet
     Accepted By The OpenStack Foundation".
  5. Vendors who publish self-tests MUST provide them in the same format that
     would be submitted to the OpenStack Foundation but MAY provide additional
     formats if they choose to do so.
  6. Self-test results cannot be used as proof of compliance.

C2. Vendor submits results to Foundation for review

  1. The Foundation determines the acceptable format for submissions.
  2. The Foundation has final authority to determine if Vendor meets
     criteria.
  3. The Foundation will provide a review of the results within 30 days.

C3. Vendor Grievance Process

  1. Vendors may raise concerns with specific tests to the DefCore
     committee.
  2. The DefCore committee may choose to remove tests from a Guideline
     (known as flagging).
  3. The DefCore committee will acknowledge vendor requests to flag tests
     within 30 days.
  4. Vendors may not request flagging all tests in a capability.

C4. Results of Vendor Self-Tests will be open

  1. The Foundation will make the final results of approved vendors
     available to the community.
  2. The Foundation will not publish incomplete or unapproved results.
  3. Only "pass" results will be reported. Skipped and failed results will
     be omitted from the reports.
  4. Reports will include individual test results, not just capability
     scoring.

C5. API Usage Data Report

  1. The Foundation will provide DefCore committee with an open report
     about API usage based on self-tests.
  2. To the extent the data is available, capabilities beyond the DefCore
     list will be included in the report.

Guideline Approval (D)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Starting: S+3

D1. Board will review and approve DefCore Guideline from draft

  1. Guidelines are set at the Platform, Component and Capability level
     only.
  2. The DefCore Committee will submit the human-readable summary of
     capabilities (see section A2[6]) to the Board for approval.
  3. By voting to approve the summary, the Board delegates responsibility
     for maintaining test groupings to the DefCore committee subject to
     the limitations described in section D2.
  4. Guidelines only apply to the identified releases (a.k.a. release
     tags).

D2. DefCore Committee has authority on test categorization

  1. DefCore Committee can add flagged tests before and after Guideline approval.
  2. DefCore Committee cannot add additional Tests to Capability mappings after 
     approval.
  3. DefCore Committee maintains the test to capability mappings in the
     JSON representation.

D3. Designated sections only enforced for projects with required capabilities

  1. Designated sections may be defined for any project.
  2. Designated sections apply to the releases (a.k.a. release tags)
     identified in the Guideline.
  3. Designated sections will be included in the JSON Capabilities file
     to ensure a single source of identification.

D4. Guidelines are named based on the date of Board approval

  1. Naming pattern will be: 4-digit year, dot (period), and 2-digit month.


Functional Information
======================
:Format: RestructuredText
:Layout: 1.0