Open Stack

Greetings, fellow Heatists. My name is not Steve and I would like to 
announce my candidacy for the position of Orchestration PTL.

Most of you, I hope, already know me. I've been working on Heat 
full-time essentially since the project started, and I've been a member 
of the core team since before that was a thing. I'm pretty familiar with 
both the Heat code and the strategic direction of the program. I've also 
regularly filled in for past PTLs in various capacities (e.g. on the 
Technical Committee, in project meetings, and chairing Heat team 
meetings), so I feel as prepared as one could for being an OpenStack PTL 
without actually having been one.

Heat has always been a project where the core team members make 
decisions by consensus, the PTL does *not* have the last word on any 
decision, and the role is rotated through the core team. I'd like to 
keep it that way. The term "Program Technical Lead" is a misnomer to me, 
because we expect leadership from everyone in the team, and especially 
the core team. (And, not incidentally, because the responsibilities of 
the PTL are not primarily technical.)

With the move to a directly-elected Technical Committee, I think it's 
time to revisit the role of the PTLs in OpenStack, and understanding 
that role from the inside will help me to give better input into that 
process. So the main change I want to make to the project is to make 
sure that the _next_ PTL has less work to do.

PTLs exist primarily to ensure that the program remains accountable to 
the wider OpenStack community, and I am happy to take on that 
accountability because I have complete faith in the core team.

If elected, it would be my intention to serve for only a single 
development cycle, as previous Heat PTLs have done. I think that has 
proven to be a successful model for building leadership depth, 
maintaining team culture, avoiding burnout and maintaining long-term 
productivity. I'd also like to encourage anyone thinking of running next 
time to consider bringing forward their plans and stepping up now, 
because choice is healthy :)

Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Steves - Dake, 
Hardy and Baker - for all their hard work in this role over the past 
three release cycles. Great work guys!

cheers,
Zane.