# Governance Guidance Working Group

**URL:** <https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565>\
**Category:** Governance\
**Created:** [November 30, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565 "2020-11-30T16:27:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/1 "2020-11-30T16:27:15Z")

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Hi everyone,

we are happy to announce the creation of a new Working Group about governance 🥳

The new working group is called [Governance guidance](https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/governance-guidance/) and joins efforts from the [Governance Readiness](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-readiness-working-group/298) and [Principles of Governing OSS](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/principles-of-open-source-institutional-design/62/16) Working Groups. In the last meeting at the Governance Readiness working group (check meeting notes [here](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-readiness-working-group/298/64)), it was decided to close them and create a new one aligning efforts.

The **purpose** of this working group is to facilitate the elicitation of governance models in Open Source projects. To this aim, we will focus our efforts on the elaboration on principles on governance and the definition of a matrix of questions to ask frequently (joining ideas from previous WGs).

@greggish and I are the **bottom-liners** of this working group. @GeorgLink is also involved in the initiative. Of course, anyone is more than welcome. If you are interested, contact any of us.

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/2 "2020-11-30T17:17:06Z")

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This is exciting news @jlcanovas! 🎉 I might be able to contribute some knowledge to this.

Do you want me to rename the category “Governance Readiness” to “Governance Guidance”?

Also, feel free to update this pinned post for the category:

> [@About the Governance category](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/about-the-governance-readiness-category/27):
>
> Working Group: Discussions and topics around community governance and governance best practices. Topics include governance models, documenting open source community management strategies, and more. Bottom liner: @jlcanovas Why should people use this category? What is it for? If you want to talk about governance in Free and Open Source Software projects, this is the place. Whether it is about political organization or how to lead in the open, this Working Group convenes folks from different bac…

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**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 9:37am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/3 "2020-12-01T09:37:19Z")

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Hi @jwf, you will be more than welcome! 🙂

> [@jwf](#):
>
> Do you want me to rename the category “Governance Readiness” to “Governance Guidance”?

It would be awesome, but we thought that that category could be named “Governance”. This way, it could collect all working lines about the topic, what do you think?

Cheers,

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/4 "2020-12-07T20:10:31Z")

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> [@jlcanovas](#):
>
> This way, it could collect all working lines about the topic, what do you think?

Makes sense to me!

> [@jlcanovas](#):
>
> It would be awesome, but we thought that that category could be named “Governance”.

Done. ✅

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**Author:** ![greggish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@greggish](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/greggish)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/5 "2021-12-15T14:34:13Z")

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Just reading through [the 2021 summary report](https://sustainoss.org/assets/pdf/Sustain-In-2021-Event-Report.pdf) and I noticed a checklist of questions in a different section – in _Building a Community_, specifically p 15-17 – that we might want to cross-reference with our question set and potentially augment accordingly.

I can try to get to this in a bit, unless anyone’s already done it?

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**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/6 "2021-12-15T14:54:12Z")

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Ey @greggish! good point, some of those elements could enrich the matrix. I don’t think anyone has addressed it before, so feel free to go 🙂

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**Author:** ![GeorgLink](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/georglink/32/19_2.png) [@GeorgLink](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/GeorgLink)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/7 "2021-12-15T16:31:53Z")

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To clarify, is this the checklist that @jlcanovas’s working group created before merging the two governance working groups together?

I think it would be excellent to combine the matrix and the checklist into one cohesive framework – where both enrich the other.

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**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/8 "2021-12-16T14:41:40Z")

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As far as I understand, the checklists on pages 15-17 are coming from different working groups and have not been merged with ours.

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**Author:** ![greggish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@greggish](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/greggish)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/9 "2021-12-21T14:21:30Z")

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OK I had 20 minutes so I went through them and [cross-referenced our grid](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ya_flgj83ki46genn2b-QiXPxMrDrqjmTgmKIWJgLu4/edit#gid=0). We already had several of these in some form, but quite a few I didn’t find clearly represented.

These are some questions that I’m not immediately sure where to place in the grid. I could guess, but I wonder what you all would think

> - How do you plan end-of-life before the first commit?
> - Is there a good security strategy?
> - Is continuous integration continuous deployment (CICD) set up from the start?
> - Is there a public roadmap?
> - Are there scaling processes delineated?
> - What is the bus factor of the organization?
> - Are there tutorials or walk-throughs for new users?
> - Is there a delineation of roles, and how new roles are created?
> - Are there venues to talk to the community about what they [?] did, and how they did it, so that people can learn from each other?
> - Is accessibility considered? Are translations?

Thoughts on where each of these should go?

Also, I added this one to `Rules` under `Code` but i revised a bit and want to check to see if it resonates:

> How will contributions be reviewed – and approved, revised, or rejected?

And I put this in rules about ‘Community’ but not sure:

> Are there regular check-ins?

Feedback welcome! We might also want to engage with Erin McKean (@esperluette?) to solicit their perspective?

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/10 "2021-12-22T18:31:35Z")

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> [@greggish](#):
>
> Thoughts on where each of these should go?

Perhaps we could consider new sections in the existing governance list, instead of trying to cram new questions into categories that don’t fit. What if we added new categories to the governance readiness checklist and moved some of the questions above into these new categories? We might even re-sort old questions too:

- Community & decision-making
- Diversity, equity, & inclusion
- “Open” development best practices

> [@greggish](#):
>
> Feedback welcome!

I was wondering about reviving the working group for a fixed period to iterate the governance readiness checklist further. It managed to achieve a level of popularity, and perhaps we can leverage that by updating it to be more comprehensive.

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**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 9:28am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/11 "2021-12-23T09:28:17Z")

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This would be my proposal (but happy to discuss any of them, I foresee a rich discussion 😃):

> - How do you plan end-of-life before the first commit?

Rules - Code

> - Is there a good security strategy?

Rules - Project

> - Is continuous integration continuous deployment (CICD) set up from the start?

Rules - Code (or Maintainers’s Time)

> - Is there a public roadmap?

Boundaries - Project (or Rules - Brand)

> - Are there scaling processes delineated?

Boundaries - Code (or Maintainers’s Time)

> - What is the bus factor of the organization?

Monitoring - Code

> - Are there tutorials or walk-throughs for new users?

Rules - Community (similar to “how are newcomers onboarded?”)

> - Is there a delineation of roles, and how new roles are created?

Rules - Community

> - Are there venues to talk to the community about what they [?] did, and how they did it, so that people can learn from each other?

Boundaries - Community (similar to “What are our channels/spaces?”)

> - Is accessibility considered? Are translations?

Boundaries - Community (similar to “Who is welcome in our community?”) but also Boundaries - Documentation

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jlcanovas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jlcanovas/32/240_2.png) [@jlcanovas](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jlcanovas)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/governance-guidance-working-group/565/12 "2021-12-23T09:36:16Z")

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Good point Justin! If you refer to the [old governance readiness checklist](https://sustainers.github.io/governance-readiness/), do you think those categories could be added as orthogonal dimensions? 🤔

On the other hand, if you refer to [the grid](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ya_flgj83ki46genn2b-QiXPxMrDrqjmTgmKIWJgLu4/edit#gid=0), I would bet they should be added as new columns, but @greggish may have a different view. In any case, if added as columns, I think we should check potential overlapping with the ones we already have. Nice point to explore/discuss.