django/docs/internals/organization.txt

==================================
Organization of the Django Project
==================================

Principles
==========

The Django Project is managed by a team of volunteers pursuing three goals:

- Driving the development of the Django Web Framework,
- Fostering the ecosystem of Django-related software,
- Leading the Django community in accordance with the values described in the
  `Django Code of Conduct`_.

The Django Project isn't a legal entity. The `Django Software Foundation`_, a
non-profit organization, handles financial and legal matters related to the
Django Project. Other than that, the Django Software Foundation lets the
Django Project manage the development of the Django framework, its ecosystem
and its community.

.. _Django Code of Conduct: https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/
.. _Django Software Foundation: https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/

Since 2014, the Django Project is an aristocracy_. The Django core team makes
the decisions, elects its technical board, and nominates new team members.
While it holds decision power in theory, it aims at using it as rarely as
possible in practice. Rough consensus should be the norm and formal voting an
exception.

Until 2014, the Django Project was a benevolent_ dictatorship_.

.. _aristocracy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy
.. _benevolent: http://www.holovaty.com/writing/bdfls-retiring/
.. _dictatorship: http://jacobian.org/writing/retiring-as-bdfls/

.. _core-team:

Core team
=========

Role
----

The core team is the group of trusted volunteers who manage the Django
Project. They assume many roles required to achieve the project's goals,
especially those that require a high level of trust. They make the decisions
that shape the future of the project.

Core team members are expected to act as role models for the community and
custodians of the project, on behalf of the community and all those who rely
on Django.

They will intervene, where necessary, in online discussions or at official
Django events on the rare occasions that a situation arises that requires
intervention.

They have authority over the Django Project infrastructure, including the
Django Project website itself, the Django GitHub organization and
repositories, the Trac bug tracker, the mailing lists, IRC channels, etc.

Prerogatives
------------

Core team members may participate in formal votes, typically to nominate new
team members and to elect the technical board.

Some contributions don't require commit access. Depending on the reasons why a
contributor joins the team, they may or may not have commit permissions to the
Django code repository.

However, should the need arise, any team member may ask for commit access by
writing to the core team's mailing list. Access will be granted unless the
person withdraws their request or the technical board vetoes the proposal.

Core team members who have commit access are referred to as "committers" or
"core developers".

Other permissions, such as access to the servers, are granted to those who
need them through the same process.

Membership
----------

The core team finds its origins with the :ref:`four people
<original-team-list>` who created Django. It has grown to :ref:`a few dozen
people <core-team-list>` by co-opting volunteers who demonstrate:

- a good grasp of the philosophy of the Django Project
- a solid track record of being constructive and helpful
- significant contributions to the project's goals, in any form
- willingness to dedicate some time to improving Django

As the project matures, contributions go way beyond code. Here's an incomplete
list of areas where contributions may be considered for joining the core team,
in no particular order:

- Working on community management and outreach
- Providing support on the mailing-lists and on IRC
- Triaging tickets
- Writing patches (code, docs, or tests)
- Reviewing patches (code, docs, or tests)
- Participating in design decisions
- Providing expertise in a particular domain (security, i18n, etc.)
- Managing the continuous integration infrastructure
- Managing the servers (website, tracker, documentation, etc.)
- Maintaining related projects (djangoproject.com site, ex-contrib apps, etc.)
- Creating visual designs

Very few areas are reserved to core team members:

- Reviewing security reports
- Merging patches (code, docs, or tests)
- Packaging releases

Core team membership acknowledges sustained and valuable efforts that align
well with the philosophy and the goals of the Django Project.

It is granted by a four fifths majority of votes cast in a core team vote and
no veto by the technical board.

Core team members are always looking for promising contributors, teaching them
how the project is managed, and submitting their names to the core team's vote
when they're ready. If you would like to join the core team, you can contact a
core team member privately or ask for guidance on the :ref:`Django Core
Mentorship mailing-list <django-core-mentorship-mailing-list>`.

There's no time limit on core team membership. However, in order to provide
the general public with a reasonable idea of how many people maintain Django,
core team members who have stopped contributing are encouraged to declare
themselves as "past team members". Those who haven't made any non-trivial
contribution in two years may be asked to move themselves to this category,
and moved there if they don't respond. Past team members lose their privileges
such as voting rights and commit access.

.. _technical-board:

Technical board
===============

Role
----

The technical board is a group of experienced and active committers who steer
technical choices. Their main concern is to maintain the quality and stability
of the Django Web Framework.

Prerogatives
------------

The technical board holds two prerogatives:

- Making major technical decisions when no consensus is found otherwise. This
  happens on the |django-developers| mailing-list.
- Veto a grant of commit access or remove commit access. This happens on the
  django-core mailing-list.

In both cases, the technical board is a last resort. In these matters, it
fulfills a similar function to the former Benevolent Dictators For Life.

When the board wants to exercise one of these prerogatives, it must hold a
private, simple majority vote on the resolution. The quorum is the full
committee — each member must cast a vote or abstain explicitly. Then the board
communicates the result, and if possible the reasons, on the appropriate
mailing-list. There's no appeal for such decisions.

In addition, at its discretion, the technical board may act in an advisory
capacity on non-technical decisions.

Membership
----------

The technical board is an elected group of five committers. They're expected
to be experienced but there's no formal seniority requirement. Its current
composition is published :ref:`here <technical-board-list>`.

A new board is elected after each major release of Django. The election
process is managed by the outgoing technical board. The first election is
bootstrapped by the retiring BDFLs. The election process works as follows:

1. Candidates advertise their application for the technical board to the team.

   They must be committers already. There's no term limit for technical board
   members.

2. Each team member can vote for zero to five people among the candidates.
   Candidates are ranked by the total number of votes they received.

   In case of a tie, the person who joined the core team earlier wins.

Both the application and the voting period last between one and two weeks, at
the outgoing board's discretion.

Changing the organization
=========================

Changes to this document require a four fifths majority of votes cast in a
core team vote and no veto by the technical board.