Carsten Bormann, 2021-07-15 Draft for 2021-07-19 meeting
One Data Model (OneDM) has an adoption process for accepting common data models into OneDM’s Adopted Models repository. This process relies on a review board as the gating function for moving the process forward.
The present memo describes the review board, its principles of operation, and the way it is set up.
The review board makes the day-to-day decisions in the OneDM model adoption process. The decisions are made on a consensus basis as detailed below. The review board does not vote, and its decisions are based on technical considerations and their merit in moving the goals of the OneDM liaison organization forward.
The review board is composed of individuals that act as experts, not as representatives of companies or other organizations. That said, the review board is intended to operate based on a good overall coverage of knowledge about:
- IoT data/interaction modelling and specifically the SDF data modeling language as standardized by IETF's ASDF WG; with a goal that the adopted models are a good fit for the overall objectives of OneDM.
- Specific characteristics of the ecosystems that come together in the OneDM activity, in order to ensure not only a high quality of adopted models but also their usefulness in the ecosystem specific processes and applications.
The review board members should be chosen with the intention for them to act in unison toward harmonizing the use of data/interaction models in the greater IoT industry. They should always feel empowered to Do the Right Thing.
The review board meets regularly, each meeting being conditional on whether models to be adopted have been submitted and/or general business of the review board needs to be taken care of.
The review board elects a chair (running the meetings) and a secretary (ensuring that input is prepared and decisions are recorded), which may be the same or different individuals.
The review board runs a mailing list for which submission is enabled both for the review board members and for active model submitters (e.g., by simply giving them an account).
Eleven days before a decision meeting, the secretary makes the agenda of that meeting known, which mainly consists of references to models in one of the OneDM repositories, assisted by the process form as held in the adoption repository.
The secretary solicits one of the review board members to act as the champion for the agenda item (the champion can, but usually will not, change during the process steps for one model); the champion should not be a member that will need to recuse itself (see below). If no champion can be found, this is a process failure.
The time between the agenda setting and the decision meeting can be used for informal communication between board members and the submitter, possibly facilitated by the champion and usually including the rest of the review board. This informal communication can lead to some short-notice revisions in the model under review in order to resolve technical issues.
Revision numbers are used to minimize the confusion by this informal process; it is considered more important to be able to exercise this informal channel than to have perfect consistency at all times, but the informal alignment process should not be abused for sweeping changes.
Before a decision meeting, each individual in the review board reviews the models under review, taking one of the following positions. Minor comments can be attached to each of these positions to raise some potential for elective improvements; a Discuss position also comes with an explanation of the problem.
- Yes -- the board member has reviewed the model in detail and considers it a good addition to the repository of adopted models.
- No objection -- the model has been reviewed at a potentially less detailed level and there is no problem.
- Discuss -- the board member has a problem with the submission that needs to be resolved before the process can go forward.
- Abstain -- the board member does not want a position to be recorded.
- Recuse -- the board member is involved in the submission or has some other conflict of interest.
For a model to go forward, it needs at least two Yes positions and no outstanding Discuss positions.
As a special case for resolving difficult Discuss cases (rough consensus), a single Discuss position can be overruled in the next meeting by the other review board members, if none of the other review board members has expressed their support for the single Discuss position.
The review board can give the champion license to process Discuss positions between meetings with the board member(s) that raised the Discuss and the submitter; if the Discuss can be resolved by a change and the champion has reason to assume no further discussion will be needed, no further formal meeting is necessary to complete the processing step.
The initial review board is set up by the OneDM liaison group members based on the principles outlined above. The review board can decide by consensus to co-opt additional individuals. Ultimate control over the membership resides with the OneDM liaison group members, with a tendency to a hands-off approach.