Every Foundation project has an associated maturity level, as voted on under the approved Project Lifecycle Document (PLD) process. Proposed Foundation projects should state their preferred maturity level. Projects of all maturities have access to Foundation resources.
All Foundation projects may attend TAC meetings and contribute work regardless of their stage.
All votes to accept/advance Projects will be taken by email over the respective mail lists (e.g. TAC, SPC.) Email vote by the entire TAC obviates the need for quorum. Votes are immutable once cast. Voting threshold numbers are always rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Voting Window:
PLD voting shall be time bound. Once a motion is made and seconded there will be a maximum of 14 calendar days for a vote to occur, with the starting time marked at the day and time a motion is seconded. A vote will cease once a decision point is reached or at the 14 calendar day mark. The voting window applies to both the TAC and Governing Board/Strategic Planning Committee votes, with each having their own independent two week voting period.
Definition
At Large projects are open-source efforts which the TAC believes are, or have the potential to be, important to the edge ecosystem as a whole. They are typically early-stage efforts looking to add capabilities to the LF Edge open edge platform as a whole in exchange for community support.
Expectations of the project
All projects enter LF Edge at the At Large stage, regardless of size, experience, or maturity. Those that are well-established may graduate to other stages at will, subject to TAC approval.
At Large stage does not set minimum requirements for community size, governance, or production readiness. Projects will be reviewed by the TAC on an annual basis; projects may also request a status review by submitting a report to the TAC. The TAC may also recommend that a project consider applying for promotion to another stage when they are deemed ready.
Benefits to the project
The At Large stage provides a beneficial, neutral home for projects in order to foster collaborative development, work towards an open edge framework by collaborating with other LF Edge projects, and provide a path to maturity via the graduation process.
Acceptance Criteria
To be considered for the At Large Stage, the project must meet the following requirements:
Have at least one LF Edge Member company participating and sponsoring (covering incidental expenses).
2 TAC sponsors that champion the project and volunteer to mentor the project as needed
Present their application proposal at an upcoming meeting of the TAC, in accordance with the project proposal requirements
Have a leadership team of one or more persons and a list of current participants.
Have a compatible IP policy in place, or work to convert to one before acceptance. The typical IP Policy for Projects under the LF Edge Foundation is Apache 2.0 for Code Contributions, Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) for new inbound contributions, and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License for Documentation. Projects under outside licenses may still submit for consideration, subject to review/approval of the TAC and Board.
List their status prominently on website/readme upon acceptance.
Receive a two-thirds vote of all TAC representatives that do not abstain the vote and a majority vote of the Governing Board's Strategic Planning Committee to enter into the At Large Stage.
Definition
The Growth Stage is for projects that are interested in reaching the Impact Stage, and have identified a growth plan for doing so. The Growth Stage is meant to harbor projects still working on their product or service and are working towards supporting adopters at scale using the product or service (examples: releasing a bug fix, having to provide guidance on upgrades, addressing a security issue, etc.).
Expectations of the project
Growth Stage projects have well-formed and documented processes, procedures and practices for planning, designing, implementing and documenting their intended edge product or service (while these can always be improved, the project functions in a manner most would say is consistent with modern engineering efforts). Growth Stage projects are regularly releasing their product or service artifacts – even if they are in early prototypical form, but not yet having to support existing product/service. Growth Stage projects have the resources (leadership, people, tools, infrastructure) necessary to deliver their product or service.
Benefits to the project
The Growth stage projects are on the cusp of providing, hopefully, a product or service that is widely adopted. As such, they are provided all the infrastructure and tooling the LF Edge community can reasonably provide in its budget.
Acceptance Criteria
To be considered for Growth Stage, the project must meet the At Large requirements as well as the following:
Stage 3: Impact Stage
Definition
The Impact Stage is for projects on a self-sustaining cycle of development, maintenance, and long-term support. Impact Stage projects are widely used in production environments with a significant number of public use cases. Moreover they have broad, well-established communities with a number of diverse contributors.
Expectations of the project
Benefits to the project
They receive ongoing financial and marketing support from the Foundation, and are expected to cross promote the foundation along with their activities.
Acceptance Criteria
To graduate from At Large or Growth status a project must meet the Growth stage criteria plus:
Definition
Emeritus projects are projects which the maintainers feel have reached or are nearing end-of-life. Emeritus projects have contributed to the ecosystem, but are not necessarily recommended for modern development as there may be more actively maintained choices. The Foundation appreciates the contributions of these projects and their communities, and the role they have played in moving the ecosystem forward.
Examples
Expectations
Projects in this stage are not in active development. Their maintainers may infrequently monitor their repositories, and may only push updates to address security issues, if at all. Emeritus projects should clearly state their status and what any user or contributor should expect in terms of response or support. If there is an alternative project the maintainers recommend, it should be listed as well. The foundation will continue to hold the IP and any trademarks and domains, but the project does not draw on foundation resources.
Acceptance Criteria
Projects may be granted Emeritus status via a two-thirds vote of all TAC representatives that do not abstain the vote and a majority vote of the Governing Board and with approval from project ownership. In cases where there is a lack of project ownership, only a two-thirds vote from the TAC is required.
The TAC shall develop an annual review process to determine whether projects are in the stage that accurately reflects their needs and goals. If a project is determined to be out of place, the TAC shall provide guidance to the project in the form of recommendations towards resolving the situation.
TAC Sponsor: TAC Sponsors are voting TAC members who act as a voice of the TAC to shepherd a proposed project through the process. TAC Sponsors are expected to have some knowledge in the ‘Proposed Projects code’ (at a reasonable level, be able to speak and answer questions on behalf of the proposal). If not identified in initial Proposal, a TAC Sponsor is a volunteer (or volunteers) from the TAC who believe the Proposed Project might be a good fit in the LF Edge Foundation, and agrees to support the project (technical and/or marketing contributions). At least one TAC Sponsor should come from a non-applying TAC member.
Standard Voting Options:
Abstention: A vote cast to abstain shall not have any impact in the positive/yes/+1 nor negative/no/-1 direction of a voting process. An abstention is treated as a neutral “don’t care” zero and will reduce the voting pool to which the passage criteria is applied.