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rfc:rfc6433

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Hoffman Request for Comments: 6433 VPN Consortium Updates: 6292 November 2011 Category: Informational ISSN: 2070-1721

          Requirements for a Working Group Milestones Tool

Abstract

 The IETF intends to provide a new tool to Working Group chairs and
 Area Directors for the creation and updating of milestones for
 Working Group charters.  This document describes the requirements for
 the proposed new tool, and it is intended as input to a later
 activity for the design and development of such a tool.  This
 document updates RFC 6292.

Status of This Memo

 This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
 published for informational purposes.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
 approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
 Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6433.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors.  All rights reserved.
 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
 described in the Simplified BSD License.

Hoffman Informational [Page 1] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

1. Introduction

 [RFC2418] describes the guidelines and procedures for operation of
 IETF Working Groups (WGs).  Every WG has milestones that the WG is
 supposed to meet, such as the publication of a particular Internet-
 Draft or the beginning of discussion on a particular topic.  A WG's
 charter has several parts; one of those parts is the milestones.
 Changing milestones currently requires Area Director (AD) approval,
 but changing the charter text requires IESG approval.
 Today, the tasks associated with creating and updating WG milestones
 are performed manually by the Secretariat.  Normally, WG chairs send
 email to their AD requesting that milestones be created or updated.
 They send mail to the their AD, or directly to the Secretariat, when
 one or more milestone has been met.  Apart from during WG creation,
 these updates will be made through a separate tool after the
 requirements in this document and in [RFC6292] are met.
 In early 2011, the IETF approved a set of requirements for a tool
 that helps ADs with the WG chartering and rechartering process
 [RFC6292].  During the IESG discussion of that document, it became
 clear that everyone wanted more automation to the milestones process.
 This document is intended to bring that discussion to a general
 consensus for the requirements for the eventual tool.
 Note that this document only discusses updating milestones that an
 active WG is working against.  As described in [RFC6292], when a WG
 is rechartering, the new charter might also include new milestones.
 The tool described here must not change the milestones that are
 proposed for a WG recharter.  That is, there must be two sets of
 milestones kept by the Datatracker, one for the current WG charter
 and one for a proposed recharter; the tool described here must only
 affect the first of these two sets.
 The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) would like to
 create a better tool for the tasks of WG milestone creation and
 updating, and this document lists the requirements for such a tool.
 When complete, this document may be used to issue an request for
 proposals for the design and development of the tool.  This document
 was prepared at the request of the IAOC.

2. Users of the Tool

 This tool can only be used by WG chairs and ADs, not by other members
 of the IETF community.  The tool will use the login and access
 control features that will already be in place from the outcome of

Hoffman Informational [Page 2] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

 the tool created by [RFC6292].  It is important to note that some
 people are chairs for more than one WG, and everyone must be able to
 use the tool for all of the WGs that they chair.
 Any AD can add or update any milestone for any WG.  Normally, an AD
 would only add or update milestones in the WGs for which they are the
 responsible AD, but ADs are not bound by such a limitation.  (This is
 the same model used in the Datatracker for other actions: it allows
 one AD to carry the load for an AD who is temporarily unable to
 perform such tasks.)  WG chairs can only add or update milestones for
 WGs of which they are chairs.
 The IETF Secretariat needs to be able to perform the same tasks as
 the ADs in order to fix problems or to make emergency changes.
 The database will record the date and person who initiates any
 addition of, or change to, a milestone.  The contents of the database
 will be visible to the IETF community so that anyone can see who made
 a particular change to a milestone.

3. Updating, Adding, and Deleting Milestones

 A WG chair needs to see all of the milestones for that chair's WG in
 the tool.  The chair needs to be able to change any milestone record
 for that chair's WG.  In each existing record, the chair needs to be
 able to change the due date, the finished date, the associated
 Internet-Drafts, and the description of the milestone.  The chair
 also needs to be able to delete existing milestones.
 A WG chair needs to be able to add one or more milestone records to
 the database for their WG.  The chair needs to be able to specify the
 due date, zero or more associated Internet-Drafts, and the
 description of the record that he or she is adding.

4. Acceptance of Milestone Additions and Changes

 There are six actions associated with adding and changing milestones:
 o  create new milestones
 o  delete milestones
 o  change milestone descriptions
 o  change milestone due dates

Hoffman Informational [Page 3] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

 o  change which Internet-Drafts are associated with a milestone
 o  assert that a milestone is no longer due
 In addition to the above six actions, the tool must support
 reordering of the list of milestones.
 WG chairs can change milestone due dates, change which Internet-
 Drafts are associated with a milestone, can assert that a milestone
 is no longer due, for their WG, and reorder the list.  When any of
 these three actions are taken in the Datatracker, an email
 notification is sent to the AD for the WG as well as to the WG's
 chairs; the changes are reflected immediately in the Datatracker
 without any need for approval from an AD.
 WG chairs can also create new milestones, delete milestones, and
 change milestone descriptions; however, any of these action are not
 reflected in the Datatracker until the action is approved by an AD.
 When a WG chair makes the proposed change, an email notification is
 sent to the AD for the WG as well as to the WG's chairs.
 When creating a milestone, it must be possible to set a due date.  It
 must also be to change the due date at any time.
 When asserting that a milestone is no longer due, it must be possible
 to provide an arbitrary short description phrase.  Often this phrase
 will be "Done", but other phrases such as "On hold" are also allowed.
 When the Datatracker presents a milestone, the only information that
 is expected to be associated with the provided phrase is that the
 milestone is no longer due.  The Datatracker will present the list of
 milestones in the order given in the tool.
 As noted in Section 2, any AD can take any of these six actions, as
 well as reordering the list.  After this tool is launched, the IETF
 Secretariat will no longer need to post a change to the database
 because the tool will do this without intervention by the
 Secretariat; however, the Secretariat can take any of these six
 actions as well.
 When adding or editing a milestone, the AD or WG Chair must be able
 to review and change the proposed change before committing the change
 to the Datatracker.  This will help prevent errors and reduce the
 number of fixes that need to be made.
 Once a day, the Datatracker will look for changes to the milestones
 for a WG.  If changes to milestones have been made in the past 24
 hours, the Datatracker will send one message to the WG listing all
 the changes from that period.

Hoffman Informational [Page 4] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

 The Datatracker needs to have a method for ADs and the Secretariat to
 see all the milestones that are pending approval.  This list should
 be sorted by the responsible AD.

5. Mapping Milestones to Internet-Drafts

 There is currently no mechanism to map WG milestones to Internet-
 Drafts.  While most milestones map one-to-one with Internet-Drafts,
 some milestones do not map to any Internet-Draft (such as those that
 say when a general discussion will begin or finish), and other
 milestones map to multiple Internet-Drafts (such as a milestone that
 covers a topic that has multiple related Internet-Drafts).  Some
 Internet-Drafts are part of more than one milestone.
 The new tool is required to make mappings between milestones and
 Internet-Drafts explicit, and those drafts must be listed in views of
 the milestone.  This change will require a change to the Datatracker
 database to make such an association.
 When an Internet-Draft that is mapped to a milestone changes its
 state to "Submitted to IESG for Publication" as described in
 [RFC6174], the tool will send a message to the WG chairs to remind
 them that they might want to update the milestone.  Note that this
 message will not apply to all Internet-Drafts that are mapped to a
 milestone, so it is up to the WG chairs to decide what to do when
 such a message is received.

6. Reminders for WG Chairs and ADs

 Milestone changes that do not require AD approval are made
 immediately.  Requested changes that require AD approval are tracked
 by the tool.  If the AD has not approved or rejected the change
 within a week, email listing the request and the request date is sent
 to the WG chairs and AD.  That email is sent every week until the AD
 has approved or rejected the request; the WG chairs are CC'd on this
 mail.
 The tool will also send WG chairs reminders about pending milestones.
 A message is sent when a milestone is one month from being due, at
 the time a milestone is due, and every month in which a milestone is
 overdue.
 The tool will also send WG chairs reminders about Internet-Drafts
 that are mapped to milestones.  A message is sent when such a draft
 is one month from expiring, and at the time that a draft expires.  If
 a milestone is mapped to a draft that is expired, mail reminding the
 chairs of this will be sent weekly.

Hoffman Informational [Page 5] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

 When a WG chair makes an Internet-Draft a WG work item, the
 Datatracker will remind them that they may want to also add that
 document to a milestone.

7. Viewing Changes in Milestones

 [RFC6292] describes an extension to the Datatracker to allow the IETF
 community to view, search, and track changes to WG charters.  This
 document updates those requirements to allow the IETF community to
 view, search, and track changes to WG milestones.
 Section 5.1 of [RFC6292] is updated to allow searching for any text
 in a milestone's description, as well as for the name of any
 Internet-Draft name that is mapped to any milestone.
 A new capability will be added to the Datatracker that is similar to
 that described in Section 5.2 of [RFC6292], but instead of showing
 differences between charters, it shows differences between the full
 set of milestones.  Any time a milestone is added, deleted, or any of
 its fields changed, or the list is reordered, the full set of
 milestones is considered changed.  A user should be able to easily
 compare two full sets of milestones with the differences highlighted.
 The tool should show who made each change when changes are viewed.
 These features should be found in the same place as the features
 described in Section 5.2 of [RFC6292].
 The tool needs to provide an Atom feed [RFC4287] for the changes in
 the milestones for a WG.  The contents of the feed are the full WG
 record, plus an indication of what changed since the last entry in
 the feed and who made the change.  This feed is different than the
 feed described in Section 5.3 of [RFC6292], but it should be offered
 to users in the same places as that feed is offered.
 When a milestone is marked as no longer due, the Datatracker will
 display the month and year that this change was made and will display
 the status (such as "Done" or "On hold").

8. Security Considerations

 Creating a new tool for updating the milestones of WGs does not
 affect the security of the Internet in any significant fashion.

9. Acknowledgements

 This document draws heavily on ideas from various WG chairs and ADs
 on the wgchairs@ietf.org mailing list.

Hoffman Informational [Page 6] RFC 6433 WG Milestones Tool Reqs November 2011

10. References

10.1. Normative References

 [RFC2418]  Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and
            Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.
 [RFC6174]  Juskevicius, E., "Definition of IETF Working Group
            Document States", RFC 6174, March 2011.
 [RFC6292]  Hoffman, P., "Requirements for a Working Group Charter
            Tool", RFC 6292, June 2011.

10.2. Informative References

 [RFC4287]  Nottingham, M., Ed. and R. Sayre, Ed., "The Atom
            Syndication Format", RFC 4287, December 2005.

Author's Address

 Paul Hoffman
 VPN Consortium
 EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org

Hoffman Informational [Page 7]

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