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People and Roles
The MADlib open source project includes individuals working in a variety of roles.
Users are community members who have a need for the project. They are the most important members of the community: without them, the project would have no purpose. Anyone can be a user; there are no specific requirements.
Users should be encouraged to participate in the life of the project and the community as much as possible. User contributions enable the project team to ensure that they are satisfying the needs of those users. Common user activities include (but are not limited to):
- Evangelizing about the project
- Informing developers of project strengths and weaknesses from a new user's perspective
- Providing moral support (a 'thank you' goes a long way)
- Providing financial support
Users who continue to engage with the project and its community will often find themselves becoming more and more involved. Such users may then go on to become Developers, as described below.
Developers are community members who either have no desire to become Committers, or have not yet been given the opportunity by the project lead. They make valuable contributions, such as those outlined in the list below, but generally do not have the authority to make direct changes to the project code. Developers engage with the project through communication tools, such as the user forum, the developer forum, the issue tracking system, and the github repository for pull requests and reviews.
Anyone can become a Developer. There is no expectation of commitment to the project, no specific skill requirements and no selection process. To become a developer, a community member simply has to perform one or more actions that are beneficial to the project.
Some developers will already be engaging with the project as users, but will also find themselves doing one or more of the following:
- Supporting new users (current users often provide the most effective new user support)
- Reporting bugs
- Identifying requirements
- Supplying graphics and web design
- Programming
- Assisting with project infrastructure
- Writing documentation
- Fixing bugs
- Adding features
As Developers gain experience and familiarity with the project, they may find that the project lead starts relying on them more and more. When this begins to happen, they gradually adopt the role of Committer, as described below.
Committers are contributors who have made several valuable contributions to the project and are now relied upon to both write code directly to the repository and screen the contributions of others. In many cases they are programmers but it is also possible that they contribute in a different role. Typically, a Committer will focus on a specific aspect of the project, and will bring a level of expertise and understanding that earns them the respect of the community and the project lead. The role of Committer is not an official one, it is simply a position that influential members of the community will find themselves in as the project lead looks to them for guidance and support.
Committers have no authority over the overall direction of the project. However, they do have the ear of the project lead. It is a Committer's job to ensure that the lead is aware of the community's needs and collective objectives, and to help develop or elicit appropriate contributions to the project. Often, Committers are given informal control over their specific areas of responsibility, and are assigned rights to directly modify certain areas of the source code. That is, although Committers do not have explicit decision-making authority, they will often find that their actions are synonymous with the decisions made by the lead.
This project is led by a Project Lead and managed by the community. That is, the community actively contributes to the day-to-day maintenance of the project, but the general strategic line is drawn by the Project Lead. In case of disagreement, the Project Lead has the last word. It is the Project Lead's job to resolve disputes within the community and to ensure that the project is able to progress in a coordinated way. In turn, it is the community's job to guide the decisions of the Project Lead through active engagement and contribution.
It is the Project Lead's responsibility to understand the community as a whole and strive to satisfy as many conflicting needs as possible, while ensuring that the project survives in the long term. The key is to ensure that, as the project expands, the right people are given influence over it and the community rallies behind the vision of the Project Lead. The lead's job is then to ensure that the Committers (see above) make the right decisions on behalf of the project. Generally speaking, as long as the Committers are aligned with the project's strategy, the project lead will allow them to proceed as they desire.
The Project Lead's word is final. If the community chooses to question the wisdom of the actions of a Committer, the Project Lead can review their decisions by checking the email archives, and either uphold or reverse them.
All participants in the community are encouraged to provide support for new users within the project management infrastructure. This support is provided as a way of growing the community. Those seeking support should recognize that all support activity within the project is voluntary and is therefore provided as and when time allows.