User:KSmith (WMF)/ArchCom thoughts

For a potential vision of what ArchCom (or a successor) could be, see: User:KSmith (WMF)/ArchCom thoughts/Vision.

Existing material
Architecture committee

Architecture committee/Team practices

Architecture meetings

Consensus

Essence
My goal for this quarter is to identify and document the essential outcomes of the ArchCom. Currently, RobLa is somewhat of a single point of failure as the ArchCom chair, and that's never healthy. Someone else who stepped in as the chair might choose different rituals and artifacts, but those should be in service of the essential activities:
 * Coordinate the handling of RfCs, from creation through approval
 * Approve RfCs
 * Encourage and participate in discussions about strategic and/or high-priority technical projects

Coordinate handling of RfCs
This currently includes:
 * Document and maintain the documentation of the RfC process
 * Maintain, groom, and update the RfC-related phabricator workboards
 * Committee members volunteer to be "shepherds" for specific RfC tasks
 * Organize IRC discussions about RfCs, and posting the results
 * Provide feedback to RfC owners
 * Meet weekly as a committee to review and plan IRC meetings, monitor and update the status of active RfCs, and have specific high-level or framing discussions about specific RfCs

Approve RfCs
This currently includes:
 * Determine the level of consensus within the relevant technical community (?)
 * Determine whether the owner has sufficiently addressed (not necessarily solved) questions and objections (?)
 * Officially mark the phabricator task as being approved

Discussions about strategic/high-priority projects
This currently appears to be ad-hoc.

RfC process
Any major change to a process or technical direction should go through an RfC process, to ensure that the relevant stakeholders have had a chance to give input. After comments have been received and addressed, ArchCom would determine whether it has sufficient consensus to proceed to implementation. Note that different levels of consensus might be required for different proposals, based on size, risk, etc.

History
Prior to the RfC process, proposals would be emailed to wikitech-l, and discussion would happen there. A lack of discussion might be interpreted by some as an indication of consensus. This was formalized as the Requests for comment/Process, which directs the discussion to wiki pages and/or Phabricator tasks. See also Requests for comment.

Details
Anyone can draft an RfC. It must have an associated phab task, and will often have an associated wiki page. The phab task enters the ArchCom process by being added to the #ArchCom-RfC phab project. Tasks start in the Inbox column, where they can be triaged by RobLa or someone else in ArchCom.

An RfC generally goes through the following states: NOTE: It would be great to have a diagram showing the possible state changes
 * Needs triage
 * Not ready for ArchCom to consider
 * Needs an ArchCom shepherd
 * Only for “important” RfC’s; others could go straight to backlog
 * Backlog
 * Don’t even have a plan for a plan yet.
 * Might not have a shepherd if it’s not needed
 * In progress/on track
 * No consensus yet
 * ArchCom has said “the idea sounds good”
 * Developer is working (e.g. on a prototype) to help frame discussion or build consensus
 * Doesn’t need discussion; “maybe check back in 3 months”
 * Under discussion (via phab comments or other channels?) (“Needs Discussion”)
 * No consensus yet
 * RFC meeting might accelerate it
 * Ready for interactive RFC meeting (weekly on IRC)
 * Final comment
 * Approved

ArchCom shepherds
Each RfC is assigned a member of ArchCom to act as its “shepherd” The shepherd:
 * From https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T125865 :
 * Makes sure that stakeholders are informed.
 * Guides the discussion.
 * Once the discussion plateaus or stalls & in coordination with the RFC author(s), announces and widely publicizes a "Final Comment Period", which is one week.
 * Acts as the single point of contact within ArchCom for communication about this RfC
 * (other shepherd responsibilities?)

Columns in #ArchCom-RfC

 * Backlog (blocked or draft)
 * Inbox
 * Needs shepherd
 * Under discussion
 * Ready for RFC meeting
 * Final comment
 * ArchCom Approved

Other related projects/workboards
#Architecture - No longer actively monitored. Candidate to be deleted?

#ArchCom - Unclear purpose. Probably need to update the phab project description.