1. William Cohen NCSU CSC 591W February 27, 2008
Proposing Features
William Cohen
NCSU CSC 591W
February 27, 2008

2. Why Proposals? Issue tracking system:
Often contains lots of historical information
Interesting in current and previous state
Little discussion on merits of issue
Proposal:
Pitches idea to project developers
Much more interested in discussing why “this is a good idea”
Little concern with historical state

3. Proposal Pieces and Parts
Abstract
Proposal
Background
Rational/use cases
Goals
Current status
Known risks
References/Bibliography

4. Abstract Kernel of idea Very concise
Allows people to decide whether they should read the rest

5. Proposal Description of what is being done More details than abstract
Some discussion might be in other sections, e.g. Rational

6. Background Provide information for people that are not domain experts
May include:
Description of problem space
History

7. Rational/Use Cases Why is this important?
Why should this work be adopted into the project

8. Goals
What is this work going to address
What is going to be completed

9. Current Status Community What is the development like on the project
Core Developers
Who is working on the project, their experiences/expertise
Alignment
How doe the propose fit into the project as a whole?

10. Known Risks Orphaned products:
Just one developer (or no developers) working on it?
Inexperience with Open Source:
People may have problem working within OSS project
Homogeneous Developers:
May have narrow view or scope
Not address important issues
Reliance on Salaried Developers:
What happens when salaried people retasked?
Relationships with other projects
A Excessive Fascination with the umbrella project:
Does the proposal fit within the project scope?
Is the proposal just trading on the umbrella project's name?

11. References/Bibliography
Provide pointers to related reading material
Back up points made in proposal
Web URLs
References to scholarly works

12. Sponsorship and Mentoring
Established people in umbrella project:
Sponsors endorse proposal
Mentors review and guide proposal writers

13. Suggestions for Proposals
Have previous work on project:
Start learning the internals of software fixing bugs
Have success with previous projects
Have existing developers on project buy-in on work
Have a clear writeup of what is being proposed:
Okay to have parts of document incomplete
Work to make document complete
Use lists for intelligent discussions on proposal
Incorporate feedback into working document
Figure out how to break the proposed work into manageable tasks

14. Further Reading http://incubator.apache.org/guides/proposal.html