Bug#830344: How should the TC help with a project roadmap?

[Mehdi Dogguy <leader@debian.org>]

On 03/08/2016 17:41, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Well, not _all_ of the bullet points above are things that the TC is
> (or could be) bad at.
> 
> But, in increasing order of likely controversy:
> 
>  * By my comments about "judgemental" I meant that a "helping people
>    get their ideas done" team ought to try to avoid making technical
>    judgements, especially adverse ones, about those ideas.
> 
>    However, making technical judgements is the key function of the TC,
>    and making them early, tentatively and informally is very valuable
>    in the TC context.  In the context of a "new ideas enabling" team,
>    early technical judgement (even if tentative and informal) risks
>    sapping energy.
> 

Note that working on a roadmap does not necessarily call for making
judgments on ideas. Also, we should not be afraid of asking questions
about the proposed ideas/goals and not consider questions to be judgments.

Besides, as Debian Developers, we like to think about technical details
of implementation. So this risk is in fact general and not specifically
linked to the TC.

>  * It is inevitable that people are often unhappy with TC decisions.
>    It is natural that TC members will tend to accumulate, if not
>    actual "enemies", people who have serious qualms about their
>    judgement.
> 

I am a little bothered with this specific point above. I do not expect TC
members to accumulate enemies over time. If people do not respect TC
decisions then we will have hard time explaining to them that they should
implement the decision. On the contrary, I really believe the TC is very
well respected in our project. People recognize the usefulness of their
work and respect their decisions once made public.

If some TC members accumulate "enemies" with time, then maybe some members
do not agree with a fundamental part of our constitution where the TC can
be called to overrule a developer. I believe people in that case are a real
minority (if they exist) and that we should not focus our attention on them.

>    We can hope that usually people who are pleased by TC decisions are
>    more numerous, but in the context of an "idea enablement" team, it
>    is much more important that stakeholders don't have an initially
>    negative view of the team members.
> 

I truly believe project members to not have an initial negative view of
the TC.

Regards,

-- 
Mehdi