Ubuntu Wiki

What are Ubuntu Server task forces ?

Ubuntu Server task forces are subgroups of the Ubuntu Server community, formed by specialists of a specific area. Becoming an Ubuntu Server developer is often seen as a daunting task, due to the breadth of packages and knowledge areas that it covers. However, lots of people are specialists of a specific server area, and such specialists should be able to gather to drive the integration and maintenance of that specific area, since they know better than anyone else. We already have a few of those groups around: formalizing and publicizing a governance model around those groups should encourage the creation of more of them.

Official Task Force List

(no team has applied to be considered a task force yet)

Task Force Processes

Creation of Task Forces

The task force should be founded as a Launchpad group. It should consist of more than one person. Its team description should include a mission statement, the list of packages covered, and a link to at least one blueprint/spec with plans for the current (or next) development cycle. A single person should be the administrator of the group, and that person will be considered the primary point of contact. When the group is ready to apply to be a formal task force, it should add its application as a topic for the next Ubuntu Server IRC team meeting. Application will be reviewed during that meeting, and if accepted by the Ubuntu Server team engineering manager, the task force will be listed on this page.

Task Force Rights

The Task force can shape the future state of the packages that are part of it. Its members define the design and implementation details of the blueprints/specs around those packages. The specs are reviewed by the Server engineering manager and accepted or denied for the current development cycle, like for any other spec.

Upload rights are not directly linked to task force participation: they are reviewed and granted by the Developer Membership Board. However, being part of a task force that cares about a particular package set is obviously recommended to get said upload rights to it

Task force members will be encouraged to participate to Ubuntu Developer Summits, and the sponsorship process should try to favor them whenever possible.

Task Force Duties

The Task force primary point of contact should participate to the weekly Ubuntu Server Team IRC meeting, and report progress on their spec(s) if requested. He is responsible for making sure the status of the Task force specs is regularly updated, so that it's easy for anyone to follow what they are up to. It should raise any significant policy decision in an ubuntu-server and/or ubuntu-devel mailing-list thread to give the rest of the community of chance of commenting.

The Task force must come up with at least one blueprint for each development cycle, detailing the plan(s) for the group during that cycle. That plan does not have to be ambitious every time, it just needs to exist so that the rest of the Ubuntu Community knows what the Task force is up to for that cycle. If the Task force repeatedly fails to deliver on its duties, the Ubuntu Server engineering manager may discuss and decide its dissolution during a weekly IRC meeting.