[pep-8002] Django

pep-8002.rst

@@ -490,6 +490,105 @@ the Project was doing (prior to 2015 when the Main Governance Document was
 adopted by the Steering Council), rather than a change in direction.
 
 
+Django
+======
+
+The governance structure is documented in `Organization of the Django Project
+https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/internals/organization/`_.
+
+
+Key people and their functions
+------------------------------
+
+The project recognizes three kinds of contributors.  Members of the
+core team, the Technical Board, and Fellows. Regular core committers
+no longer exercise their "commit bit", instead they rely on pull
+requests being reviewed and accepted.  There is a bot which merges
+the pull request.  The Technical Board steers technical choices.
+Fellows are hired contractors who triage new tickets and review patches
+from the community, including non-trivial ones.
+
+Core team members are added by nomination and vote within the core
+team, with technical board veto (so far not exercised). Technical
+board is elected by and from the core team membership every 18 months
+(every major Django release).  Sub-teams within the core team are
+self-selected by interest.
+
+
+Regular decision process
+------------------------
+
+Most day-to-day decisions are made by Fellows and sometimes other active
+core team members.
+
+The core team votes on new members which requires a 4/5 majority of
+votes cast, no quorum requirement.  The Technical Board has veto power.
+This power was never exercised
+
+
+Controversial decision process
+------------------------------
+
+The Technical Board occasionally approves Django
+Enhancement Proposals (DEPs) but those are rare.  The DEP process is
+roughly modeled after PEPs and documented in `DEP 1
+<https://github.com/django/deps/blob/master/final/0001-dep-process.rst>`_.
+DEPs are mostly used to design major new features, but also for
+information on general guidelines and process.
+
+An idea for a DEP should be first publically vetted on the
+django-developers mailing list.  After it was roughly validated, the
+author forms a team with three roles:
+
+* *authors* who write the DEP and steers the discussion;
+* *implementers* who prepare the implementation of the DEP;
+* a *shepherd* who is a core developer and will be the primary reviewer
+  of the DEP.
+
+The DEP's draft is submitted, assigned a number, and discussed.  Authors
+collect feedback and steer discussion as they see fit.  Suggested venues
+to avoid endless open-ended discussions are: separate mailing lists,
+Wiki pages, working off of pull requests on the DEP.
+
+Once the feedback round is over, the shepherd asks the Technical Board
+for review and pronouncement.  The Board can rule on a DEP as a team or
+designate one member to review and decide.
+
+In any case where consensus can't be reached, the Technical Board has
+final say. This was never exercised.
+
+Differences between DEPs and PEPs
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The main difference is that the entire workflow is based on pull
+requests rather than e-mail.  They are pronounced upon by the Technical
+Board.  They need to have the key roles identified before submission
+and throughout the process.  The *shepherd* role exists to guide a DEP
+to completion without engaging the Technical Board.
+
+Those changes to the process make it more distributed and workable in
+a governance model without a BDFL.
+
+
+Planning a new release
+----------------------
+
+Releases are done on a fixed time-based schedule, with a major version
+every 18 months.  With paid Fellows to ensure the necessary work gets
+down, on-time releases are routine.
+
+
+Changes in the process over time
+--------------------------------
+
+Django originally had two BDFLs: Jacob Kaplan-Moss and Adrian Holovaty.
+They retired (`Adrian's post
+<http://www.holovaty.com/writing/bdfls-retiring/>`_, `Jacob's post
+<https://jacobian.org/writing/retiring-as-bdfls/>`_)
+9 years into the project's history.  Following the stepping down,
+the DEP process was defined.
+
+
 Acknowledgements
 ================