Working Group Model and Description

STI International has Members (organizations), who sign up to this process as part of the Consortium Agreement.

Any single Member or a group of Members (who may also represent Projects) may propose a new Working Group (WG) charter, to be approved by Executive Board. The Executive Board either approves the WG charter or suggests changes for consideration by the original proposing Members.

A proposed WG charter should follow the template specified below. Any significant changes to the template should be pointed out and justified in a document accompanying the proposal. Any proposed WG charter MUST specify who will chair it (an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization).

Any proposed WG charter MUST specify a schedule that includes an expiration date for the WG. The Chair of a WG or any STI Member may request charter extension or other updates, to be considered by the Board. Charter extension or other updates should be communicated to all Members. The Board may update the WG charter template at any time, and it should notify the Members of any significant updates. Template updates do not affect existing Working Groups.

Working Group Charter template structure

(Each section should answer the enclosed questions)

1. Mission
   Why does this WG exist?
   What is the related work to which this group will tie its results?
2. Scope
   What does this WG aim to achieve?
3. Out of scope
   What is explicitly not going to be considered by this WG?
4. Deliverables (inputs, list, template, heartbeat req, development process, versioning)
   What existing documents are going to be inputs of this WG?
   What documents (or other deliverables) should be produced by the WG?
   What template will be used by the deliverables?
   (see Deliverable template below, formally part of the WG Charter template)
   Is the WG required to publish updates regularly?
   (heartbeat requirement to show the WG is making progress)
   What is the development process for the deliverables?What is the versioning policy for the deliverables?
5. Schedule and duration
   What are the milestones for the WG?When does the charter expire?
6. Participation
   Who are the initial chairs of the WG?
   (one organization or at least one concrete individual)
   Who may participate in the WG?What is the process for the prospective participants to join the WG?
   What is the decision process for the WG?How should dissent be managed?
7. Meetings
   When and how will the WG meet?
   (teleconferences, face-to-face meetings)
8. Communication, confidentiality
   How does the WG communicate its deliberations and progress?
   (web pages, mailing lists, press releases...)
   How and where does the WG publish its deliverables and drafts?
   How much of the WG communication is public?Who has access to the non-public communication?
9. IPR policy
   Who owns the copyright for the deliverables?
   Who owns any related trade marks and registered names?
   What is the patent policy of this WG?
   How are the results of the WG licensed to STI members and to other parties?

Document deliverable template

(A document deliverable must be a valid HTML, XHTML or PDF document.)

1. Title
2. Date, maturity (Working Draft, Final Specification, Technical Report)
3. Links to this version, latest version, previous version
4. List of authors or editors
5. Links to alternate, non-normative versions (e.g. PDF)
6. Copyright statement, link to parent Working Group (webpage or charter)
7. Abstract
8. Table of contents
9. Contents
10. Acknowledgements

Other deliverables such as test suites etc. should be in a similarly open
suitable form, and should have a "cover document" following a simpler
template:

1. Title
2. Date, maturity (Under development, Finished)
3. Links to this version, latest version, previous version
4. List of authors or editors, or link to parent Working Group
5. Description of the deliverable contents, links to the appropriate files
6. Licensing statement