Before you create a proposal
- Does this need to be a proposal? In general, if you think a design document is necessary, AND your idea involves changes to services like Toolforge, Cloud-VPS, PAWS and similar core offerings of WMCS, it could probably use a little time with the Cloud Services Proposals tag and move across the workboard where people can provide input and advice on the design and the changes. If you just need software updates in Toolforge, there's already a tag for that (Toolforge (Software install/update)). The same goes for small fixes or enhancements to PAWS--it probably just needs the PAWS tag.
- For a Proposal to be considered, it should have either all supporting documentation inline in the task or (far preferred), in Wikitech. It can be placed on your user page, or perhaps on https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Cloud_Services_team/EnhancementProposals, if that seems like the right place for it. This doesn't have to happen immediately, but it won't move forward without appropriate design information.
- If you are not a Cloud root, member of cloud-services-team or similar, you can still propose new services and ideas! It may end up being adopted or supported by cloud-services-team or taken on by community members with whatever access is required to accomplish the tasks. Acceptance of an idea after review and discussion does not imply any particular level of support by WMCS, WMF or volunteers unless parties have stated otherwise. This is about making collaborative and good decisions, not service level guarantees.
Making a proposal--what to expect
There is rarely a shortage of ideas in the Cloud-Services community. Many of the more complex ideas can get lost, don't get communicated to the right community or WMCS team members, or fail to be fully developed.
Opening a task with the link below will give you a bit of a template to help you get started. Once all of the required elements are in place, it can be moved forward to the Discussion column of the workboard. Since this is intended to be a process that should invite volunteer participation, it is hard to define exactly how long things should be discussed before moving to Implementation or being remanded back to Inbox. The goal is to discuss them as quickly as is necessary, which may be the next WMCS meeting for something simple and requiring only WMCS involvement with public comment or it could take quite a while if feedback keeps coming in requiring changes. Tasks that have no
immediate way forward, may be placed in the To-do column for when they can be taken up by someone.
If external review (another team or community group that is tracked elsewhere) is required, there will be a column for that as well.
To create your proposal task, create a task using this link, and fill out the requested information by <replacing the instructions>
Internal WMCS team proposals (aka Decision Requests)
For proposals related to WMCS team internal procedures/tools/etc., use this link instead.