Incubation Thing

This is the home page for all things related to what we are currently calling the "incubation thing".  It is the formalized process to be used by Pentaho and its community to convert ideas into product. Until a good motif is defined and names and terminology has been agreed upon, I will use "incubation thing" to represent an instance of the process. Check out Proposed Names for Incubation Area for a discussion on possible motifs.

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The following diagram illustrated the steps in a typical development "incubation thing". The bullet points under each phase is only to illustrate the things that could happen during that phase in a typical process. They are not meant to be the rules that absolutely define each phase. Each "incubation thing" that follows this process will define the entry/exit criteria for each step. This should make the process work for the "incubation thing" and not try to shoehorn every "incubation thing" into the same exact steps.

Initiating a new "incubation thing"

It is not Pentaho's goal to have lots and lots of "incubation thing"s in process just for the sake of hosting projects.  We do not want to be a mini-SourceForge. Each "incubation thing" that gets started requires Pentaho resources and will have to show a compelling value proposition for Pentaho and the community. To ensure that an "incubation thing" is successful, a high level of commitment through sponsorship is required. 

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• Pentaho Product Management (PM) initiates and sponsors the "incubation thing" of a feature or product that is on the Pentaho road map.
• A third party company has a product that fits into the Pentaho suite and wants to contribute it to Pentaho.
• A community member as an idea for a feature, discusses it in the "incubation thing" forum (to be created) and generated enough interest and support to request an "incubation thing" be created.
• The CTO office wants to productize a prototype.

Anyone from the community, Pentaho employees, customers or partners, can sponsor an "incubation thing" as long as they agree to the commitment.

Initiating a new "incubation thing"

Finding a Sponsor 

The idea can start with anyone and be cultivated by whatever means makes sense.  The the "incubation thing" forum is just one tool the community can use to initiate discussions, gauge interest and find sponsorship.  An "incubation thing" sponsor is responsible for moderating discussions, reporting status and moving the "incubation thing" forward. Anyone from the community, Pentaho employees, customers or partners, can sponsor an "incubation thing" as long as they agree to the commitment.  Although anyone can be a sponsor, ere are some typical examples. 

The sponsor will usually be someone from Pentaho Product Management (PM) for projects that are part of the product road map.  For

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In some cases, the sponsor is the person with the idea for the incubation

The "incubation thing" forum (to be created) is where the community can initiate discussions, gauge interest and find sponsorship.

Initiating a new "incubation thing"

The project sponsor contacts be committed.  In order to assure that there is enough interest,  sponsor will need to get support from two other people.  The three of them will become the working group.  There can be more people in the working group but three is the minimum.

After a sponsor has been identified, the task defined and there is commitment from at least 2 other people, the sponsor can submit a proposal to initiate an "incubation thing".

Submitting the proposal

This sounds formal but is really a matter giving the following information to Community Connection (communityconnection@pentaho.org) with the following information: (This could be a simple form)

• Identity of the Project Sponsor. Their responsibilities include:
  • Communicate status to Community
  • Coordinate meetings with working group
  • Request resources from Community as needed to support initiative

• Identify two other people to be part of the "incubation thing" working group
  • They should be stake holders in the outcome of the project
  • Agree to be involved in at least conception phase

• A mission-statement like description of the initiative. Examples:
  • Create a thin client, HTML based, slicer/dicer for Mondrian that will replace JPivot.

• A name (code short name maybe) for the initiative to be used as an easy way to talk about the "incubation thing"
• A list of interested members. There is currently no restriction or requirement for a certain number of participants. It is important to have at least 3 people willing to put their names on the project as members. This group will be referred to as the working group.
• The "incubation thing" forum and thread(s) discussing this idea if applicable.
• Any special requirements.

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Accepting the proposal

If the proposal is accepted, (at this time there is no formalized process just general consensus) Pentaho Community will create a new "incubation thing" and coordinate setting up resources required. The "incubation thing" will start in the conception phase and have a collaboration space consisting of:

• Entry in the "Conception Phase" listing in the "incubation thing" space on pentaho.org
• Forum A forum within the "incubation thing" forum space
• Wiki page for documentation, requirements, meeting notes etc
• Subversion project for source code when needed

What about these things?

• A working group email group for communication
• Some kind of webex access for meetings
• FTP Space for downloads

During the acceptance process, Pentaho Project Management (PM) will decide if the "incubation thing" is destined to become supported Pentaho product.  The "incubation thing" will be identified as "Supported Product" or "Unsupported" and be specified on the "incubation thing" page.  It should be obvious to everyone what the end game is.  Pentaho engineering will also specify their level of support of the "incubation thing".

Someone decides that
Before requesting a new "incubation thing" be initiated, the following criteria must be met.  The "incubation thing" forum is the place where stakeholders can collaborate on answering these requirements.

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• A clear and concise end result.  Examples:
  • This will be a new client tool hosted and supported by Pentaho
  • This will become a new feature of the BI Server
• A short name (code name maybe) for the initiative to be used as an easy way to talk about the project
• A list of members.  There is currently no restriction or requirement for a certain number of participants.  It is important to have at least 3 people willing to put their names on the project as members.  This group will be referred to as the working group.
• Identify a leader of the working group.  This could initially be the PM sponsor but should become someone else as soon as possible. Responsibilities of the leader:
  • Communicate status to Community
  • Coordinate meetings with working group
  • Request resources from Community as needed to support initiative
• Define the exit criteria for the Conception Phase.  Examples:
  • Completed Storyboard
  • High Level requirements in enough detail to cost out major functionality
  • Obtain commitment from someone (engineering, CTO, partner, community member, etc. ) to do a prototype or proof of concept.
• State what the visibility of the project is - completely open or restricted.

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