Project Evaluation Criteria

Document Status

IncCom Document Number: X

Version: 1.0

Status: draft

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to outline the criteria to be used for prioritizing projects for acceptance into the incubation process. The project must fully meet, or be capable of meeting by graduation, the Required Criteria. Projects should meet some or all of the Desirable Criteria. The intention is that the more criteria a project meets, the more likely it will be accepted for incubation.

Terms and Definitions

term

definition

Criteria

Required

1. the code is under an OSI approved license (data & doc projects need to specify their choice for a type of license).
2. the project is willing to keep code clear of encumbrances (committer agreements, etc). (?? is this still required ??)
3. the project is "geospatial", or directly in support of geospatial applications.

Desirable

The following are desirable traits of projects entering into the community:

1. Open source software is already reasonably mature (working quality code).
2. Project already has a substantial user community.
3. Project already has a substantial developer community.
4. Project members are aware of, and implements support for, relevant standards (ie. OGC, etc).
5. Project has linkages with existing foundation projects.
6. Project fills a gap related to software that the foundation supports.
7. Project is prepared to develop in an open and collaborative fashion.
8. Project has contributions and interest from more than just one company/organization.
9. Project is willing to migrate some or all of its infrastructure (code repository, web site, wiki, mailing list, etc) to foundation support infrastructure, and to adopt a website style consistent with the foundation.

New Project Proposals To Be Considered By The Incubation Committee

Not all projects are mature. It is understood that it takes time for a project to be created and become viable, but that a community like OSGeo.org and its hosting software would benefit the project. However, the foundation and the community want to make sure that the project is well conceived, properly supported, and worthy of the foundation's resources, and volunteer's time. The following should also be desirable when presenting a new project:

1. A detailed proposal of what is to be built and why it applies to the OSGeo foundation.
2. The person making the proposal is fully capable of developing the software or has a team that is capable of producing the software.
3. The project proposal includes a scope of work that defines what is to be built. The scope should include requirements and at least minimal design elements so that reviewers understand what is to be built.
4. Mockups (if applicable) and/or prototypes of the software to be built (desirable, but not necessary).
5. A list of other software members of the team have worked on.

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