Documentation project proposals and specs

Anyone seeking to initiate new documentation projects --project teams and individuals--must submit a project proposal and post and maintain a project spec.

Goals of project proposals

• Allow the documentation community to provide feedback to improve the project.
• Will help to build consensus for projects as part of a vetting process.
• Can help to gain volunteers for the project.
• Makes the project more transparent/open for the rest of the Drupal community.
• Is necessary to gain approval for the project.

Goals of project specs

• Helps to clearly define objectives and guidelines for project participants.
• Allows others, less involved in the project planning, to more easily assist in the project.
• Can serve as resource for developing future, similar projects.
• Makes the project more transparent/open for the rest of the Drupal community.
• Is necessary to gain approval for the project.

Project proposals and specs should attempt to address each of the following:

• Objectives/goals of the project
• Intended audience of documentation
• Relevant issues, i.e.
  • those addressed by the project
  • those that will not addressed by the project
  • any still needing to be addressed by the project
• Timeline or deadlines (if applicable)
• Workflow description
• Guidelines and examples for documentation construction (if applicable)
• List of main participants and/or organizers
• Requests for specific feedback and/or additional project participants (if applicable)

Submitting and maintaining the project proposal and spec:

• The proposal will be posted as a new issue to the Documentation project.
• Feedback from community members should be submitted by posting to the specific project issue.
• Proposal submitters will revise the proposal based on community feedback into a project spec.
• During the project, the project spec should be maintained as changes occur in the project (i.e., new documentation construction guidelines, changes in deadlines, etc.).
• For project teams, active project specs will either reside as a sub-page of the Drupal documentation project teams page for the (for larger ongoing projects) or provide a link to the project from the main project team page.