1. Introduction

Provisional TLP (pTLP) is an ongoing experiment between ASF board of directors and Apache Incubator aimed at coming up with an alternative program for bringing new projects into ASF. As it currently stands, pTLP is work-in-progress with evolving policies and documentation. This wiki page is expected to be a central information radiator for pTLP experiment. If you're helping with pTLP, don't hesitate to edit this page.

Please note that pTLP is an experiment in addition to the standard ASF Incubation process. It is expected that new communities seeking to join ASF will be given pTLP as one of the options and they can pick either pTLP or a traditional Incubation route. The benefit of the pTLP vs. traditional incubation is primarily around a much tighter mentorship model with mentors being direct participants of the project. In fact, with pTLP the initial PMC is comprised of ASF Members who are performing the traditional mentorship role. It is expected that making mentors directly accountable to the project community will allow for faster Incubation time and a much more direct control over the trajectory that projects take within ASF. 

2. What is a pTLP

A pTLP looks exactly like any other PMC. They report directly to the Board, they have infrastructure like any other project (eg. FOO.apache.org). But they have three significant differences:

  1. provisional text is prominent, much like we require "incubating" to be prominent in various locations/messages for podlings; the scope and nature of a provisional TLP needs to be clearly explained to its users by linking to this documentation page
  2. the initial PMC is comprised of only ASF Members and a small number of individuals identified as initial PMC members on the pTLP proposal (committers can be chosen however the community decides)
    Incoming PMC members on the pTLP not already ASF memberswill need to be justified in the incoming proposal.
  3. they are expected to graduate to the full TLP status when PMC feels the community is ready (the graduation is triggered via submitting a resolution to the board)

The whole idea of the pTLP is predicated on the notion that the project is reviewed and guided by people with experience with the Foundation and its views on communities. The initial PMC should therefor,  have a stronger base
for grooming new committers and PMC members, than the regular poddling PMC. By creating a PMC that understands what is needed, then a pTLP can groom new PMC members, and use the standard process for adding them to the PMC. The Board doesn't care about committership, so the pTLP can do whatever it wants in that regard.

pTLP experiment will leverage an existing expertise and policies of the ASF Incubator as much as possible. All new project proposals (regardless) of whether they are seeking a traditional poddling status or a pTLP status will be discussed on the IPMC mailing list (general@). However, once pTLP is approved by the board, it is up to pTLP's PMC to keep leveraging Incubator or to run the project as they see fit. 

3. The lifecycle of the pTLP

  1. New projects write a proposal using existing Incubation template clearly indicating whether they are seeking a pTLP status (unlike a traditional poddling, a proposed pTLP doesn't need to have a dedicated Champion)

  2. The proposal is posted to IPMC mailing list (general@) plus to the ComDev wiki and a phase of solicitation of feedback begins.
  3. During the feedback solicitation phase a PMC of the proposed pTLP is finalized. Initially, a pTLP's PMC is only allowed to consist of ASF Members.
  4. A final pTLP's PMC designates a Chair among its members and that Chair is recorded on the proposal.

  5. A final proposal (a Board Resolution) is submitted to the ASF board and is VOTEd on by the board at the board's next monthly meeting. Those proposals that cannot be VOTEs are QUEUED for the next meeting. 

  6. In case board accepts a pTLP a normal process lifecycle begins with reporting every month for the first 3 months and then quarterly. A pTLP's PMC Chair is responsible for communicating with the ASF board.   
  7. Once a pTLP gets established by the board, The first business for the initial PMC is to complete the pTLP checklist of tasks, outlined in section 4 bellow
  8. The pTLP day-to-day operation is identical to a regular TLP. It is recommended that the PMC members are extra careful, to avoid confrontation and seek consensus to the greatest extent possible, and to explicitly explain all activities in greater detail to community members, as part of the learning process.

 

4. Setting up a Provisional Top Level Project check list

  • Complete Name Search in accordance with Branding policy at http://www.apache.org/dev/project-namesearch

  • Check PMC Chair is recorded in LDAP.

  • Request Jira from INFRA

  • Request Mailing lists from INFRA

  • Add project to Reporting Schedule

  • Request source control (svn or git) from INFRA

  • Submission of ICLAs from existing committers.

  • Submission of CCLAs from affected companies

  • IP Clearance as described on http://incubator.apache.org/ip-clearance/

  • Filing of Software Grant, if applicable.

  • Change to Apache License v2.0, if applicable.

  • Update Apache Navigation to include project

  • Request User Accounts from INFRA

  • Request CMS from INFRA

  • Migrate existing documentation to Apache.

  • Ensure "Provisional" markings are adhered to, and link to http://....

  • Enable Notifications from Jira to Mailing list

  • Migrate existing codebase to Apache

  • Ensure dependency licensing compatibility, see http://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html

  • Review legal compliance on all dependencies, in particular NOTICE file.

  • Ensure compliance with Branding policy

  • Establish self-assessed Apache Maturity Model declaration.

5. Additional considerations for Podling-to-pTLP transitions 

 It is possible for existing Incubator podlings to transition into a pTLP, under the same provisions as outlined above. There are a few additional considerations that are necessary;

  • Seek the advice from the Mentors first. Having active Mentors does not necessarily mean that they are vested enough to take on the PMC member role.
  • Seek advice from the Incubator. It may be that the Incubator thinks that graduation is an easier path, or that it is unlikely to the Board would approve the pTLP formation.
  • The Resolution to the Board needs to contain the phrase "RESOLVED, that all responsibilities pertaining to the Apache Incubator XYZ podling encumbered upon the Apache Incubator Project are hereafter discharged."
  • If the Board ratifies the resolution, the task list (section 5 above) has the following additional items;
    • Resources already in existence, will be migrated, and not created, by INFRA.
    • Finalizing STATUS page
    • Change of Incubator Navigation, remove from active list.
    • Remove project from Incubator's reporting schedule.

 

 6. Current pTLP candidates

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