[openstack-dev] [all] Proposal: Architecture Working Group

Thierry Carrez thierry at openstack.org
Tue Jun 21 08:56:55 UTC 2016


Chris Dent wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Jun 2016, Doug Wiegley wrote:
>> So, it sounds like you’ve just described the job of the TC. And they
>> have so far refused to define OpenStack, leading to a series of
>> derivative decisions that seem … inconsistent over time.
>
> Thanks for writing down what I was thinking. I agree that OpenStack
> needs some architectural vision, direction, leadership, call it what
> you will. Every time I've voted for the _Technical_ Committee that
> leadership is what I've wanted my vote to be creating.

The TC is a representative body which is elected to make top-down 
decisions on OpenStack. However, as much as our community loves the idea 
of "technical leadership" and "vision", they hate the top-down decisions 
that come with it (especially when that top-down decision doesn't go 
their way). They prefer bottom-up consensus.

So I'd argue that you need both. You need the TC whenever a hard call 
has to be made, but in order to minimize the number of those hard calls 
(and favor consensus building) you also need working groups to build a 
bottom-up reasonable way forward.

> It may be that an architecture working group can provide some
> guidance that people will find useful. Against the odds I think
> those of us in the API-WG have actually managed to have a positive
> influence. We've not shaken things down to the foundations from
> which a great a glorious future may be born -- a lot of compromises
> have been made and not everybody wants to play along -- but things
> are going in the right direction, for some people, in some projects.
> Maybe a similar thing can happen with architecture.

That is my hope. I see the API WG and the Architecture WG as groups of 
experts in specific domains preparing recommendations and long-term 
plans. They don't have authority to force them onto projects. Ideally 
projects adopt them because they see them as the right way to do things.

And for the very few things that the TC deems necessary for OpenStack 
and where bottom-up didn't get it in a specific project (if all else 
fails), the TC can make a top-down request to a project to do things a 
certain way. The project can them either comply or reject the TC 
oversight and become an unofficial project.

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)



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