Open Stack

Very well said. Thank you for this.

Kevin
________________________________________
From: Flavio Percoco [flavio at redhat.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2015 8:10 AM
To: openstack-dev at lists.openstack.org
Subject: [openstack-dev] [all] Something about being a PTL

Greetings,

Next week many folks will be running for PTL positions and I thought
about taking the time to dump[0] some thoughts about what being a PTL
means - at least for me - and what one should consider before running.

Since the audience I want to reach is mostly in this mailing list, I
thought about sending it here as well.

[0] http://blog.flaper87.com/post/something-about-being-a-ptl/
Flavio


It's that time of the cycle, in OpenStack, when projects need to elect
who's going to be the PTL for the next 6 months. People look at the,
hopefully many, candidacies and vote based on the proposals that are
more sound to them. I believe, for the PTL elections, the voting
process has worked decently, which is why this post is not meant for
voters but for the, hopefully many, PTL candidates.

First and foremost, thank you. Thanks for raising your hand and
willing to take on this role. It's an honor to have you in the
community and I wish you the best of lucks in this round. Below are a
few things that I hope will help you in the preparation of your
candidacy and that I also hope will help making you a better PTL and
community member.


Why do you want to be a PTL?
============================

Before even start writing your candidacy, please, ask yourself why you
want to be a PTL. What is it that you want to bring to the project
that is good for both, the project and the community. You don't really
need to get stuck on this question forever, you don't really need to
bring something new to the project.

In my opinion, a very good answer for the above could be: "I believe
I'll provide the right guidance to the community and the project."

Seriously, one mistake that new PTLs often do is to believe they are
on their own. Turns out that PTLs arent. The whole point about being a
PTL is to help the community and to improve it. You're not going to do
that if you think you're the one pulling the community. PTLs ought to
work *with* the community not *for* the community.

This leads me to my next point

Be part of the community
========================

Being a PTL is more than just going through launchpad and keeping an
eye on the milestones. That's a lot of work, true. But here's a
secret, it takes more time to be involved with the community of the
project you're serving than going through launchpad.

As a PTL, you have to be around. You have to keep an eye on the
mailing list in a daily basis. You have to talk to the members of the
community you're serving because you have to be up-to-date about the
things that are happening in the project and the community. There may
be conflicts in reviews, bugs and you have to be there to help solving
those.

Among all the things you'll have to do, the community should be in the
top 2 of your priorities. I'm not talking just about the community of
the project you're working on. I'm talking about OpenStack. Does your
project have an impact on other projects? Is your project part of
DefCore? Is your project widely deployed? What are the deprecation
guarantees provided? Does your project consume common libraries? What
can your project contribute back to the rest of the community?

There are *many* things related to the project's community and its
interaction with the rest of the OpenStack community that are
important and that should be taken care of. However, you're not alone,
you have a community. Remember, you'll be serving the community, it's
not the other way around. Working with the community is the best thing
you can do.

As you can imagine, the above is exhausting and it takes time. It
takes a lot of time, which leads me to my next point.

Make sure you'll have time
==========================

There are a few things impossible in this world, predicting time
availability is one of them. Nonetheless, we can get really close
estimates and you should strive, *before* sending your candidacy, to
get the closest estimate of your upstream availability for the next 6
months.

Being a PTL is an upstream job, it's nothing - at the very least it
shouldn't have - to do with your actual employer. Being a PTL is an
*upstream* job and you have to be *upstream* to do it correctly.

If you think you won't have time in a couple of months then, please,
don't run for PTL. If you think your manager will be asking you to
focus downstream then, please, don't run for PTL. If you think you'll
have other personal matters to take care of then, please, don't run
for PTL.

What I'm trying to say is that you should sit down and think of what
your next 6 months will look like time-wise. I believe it's safe
enough to say that you'll have to spend 60% to 70% of your time
upstream, assuming the porject is a busy one.

The above, though, is not to say that you shouldn't run when in doubt.
Actually, I'd rather have a great PTL for 3 months that'll then step
down than having the community being led by someone not motivated
enough that was forced to run.

Create new PTLs
===============

Just like in every other leading possition, you should help creating
other PTLs. Understand that winning the PTL election puts you in a
position where you have to strive to improve the project and the
community. As part of your responsibilities with regards to the
community, you should encourage folks to run for PTL.

Being a PTL takes a lot of time and energy and you'll have to step
down[0], eventually. As a PTL, you may want to have folks from the
community ready to take over when you'll step down. I believe it's
healthy for the community to change PTLs every 2 cycles (if not every
cycle).

Community decides
=================

One of the things I always say to PTLs is that they are not dictators.
Decisions are still supposed to be taken by the community at large and
not by the PTL. However, being in a leading position gives you some
extra "trust" that the community may end up following.

Remember that as a PTL, you'll be serving the community and not the
other way around. You should lead based on what is best for the
project and the community rather than based on what's best for your
company or, even worse, based on what will make your manager happy. If
those two things happen to overlap, then AWESOME! Many times they
don't, therefore you should be ready to take a pragmatic decision that
may not be the best for the company you work for and that, certainly,
won't make your manager happy.

Are you ready to make that call?

Closing
=======

By all means, this post is not meant to discourage you. If anything,
It's meant to encourage you to jump in and be amazing. It's been an
honor for me to have served as a PTL and I'm sure it'll be for you as
well.

Despite it not being an exhaustive list and the role experiences
varying from one project to another, I hope the above will provide
enough information about what PTLs are meant to do so that your
excitement and desire to serve as one will grow.

Thanks for considering being a PTL, I look forward to read your
candidacy.

[0]: Note to existing PTLs, consider stepping down and helping others
become PTLs. It's healthier for the community you're serving to change
PTLs

--
@flaper87
Flavio Percoco