Change Proposal Process

WHAT?

This Change Proposal issue template is to be used for any significant proposed change to the SPDX Project, especially changes that have cross-team implications. Owners of Change Proposals should familiarize themselves with the parts of the SPDX Project that are relevant to the Change Proposal before submission, as well as prior discussions or evaluations by the SPDX Project community for similar previously-requested changes (where applicable).

WHY?

This Change Proposal is intended to facilitate prioritization and decision-making as to what major changes the project will work on. By communicating the intentions and intended outcome in a consistent way, we aim to create more efficient discussions and a defined scope of such proposals.

WHEN?

Use this Change Proposal process when you have a new idea for a significant change to the SPDX Project; this could be a change in policies, guidelines, how the project operates, scope, etc. A Change Proposal can be initiated as soon as you have the idea to introduce it to the community or after some initial discussion has occurred and it is determined to be something significant enough to warrant formal buy-in from the community.

If you are not sure if a change requires a Change Proposal, just ask on the appropriate mailing list or in a Team meeting. Likewise, if someone raises an idea in another way, any other community member or Team Lead may suggest they use the Change Proposal process for their idea.

HOW?

1. Create a PR using the ChangeProposal-TEMPLATE in the proposals folder and announce your Change Proposal on the relevant mailing lists (i.e., tech, legal, outreach; when in doubt, include the general mailing)
2. New change proposals will be reviewed by the relevant Team Leads for completeness, understandability of proposal, and to determine what team(s) is best suited to discuss this proposal.
   • The Steering Committee will ensure that all relevant Team Leads are aware of new change proposals which have implications for more than one Team
3. The relevant Team Leads will make reasonable efforts to facilitate a decision as to whether a properly completed proposal is accepted to move forward or not within two months. If Owners fail to provide any needed further input or responses, a Change Proposal issue may be closed without decision.
   • If a proposal is to move forward, this will be noted in the issue and further discussion and related tasks will move to the appropriate SPDX repo or other forum, as applicable, and noted in the original change proposal issue.
   • If a proposal is not to move forward, this will be noted in the change proposal and the issue will be closed.
4. For accepted proposals, further discussion will occur in the appropriate SPDX repo or other form. Owners of change proposals should ensure they are aware of this and have joined Team mailing lists, are available to join calls, follow Github repos, etc.
   • If Owners fail to participate in discussions, a Change Proposal may be closed without implementation at the discretion of the applicable Team Leads.
5. All decision making and any appeals of a decision will follow the SPDX governance.