This page describes a Cloudberry Database Proposal(CP) process for proposing major changes to Cloudberry Database.

When​

Not all changes need one CP.

When changes are just minor updates or general bug fixes, just create a pull request directly!

When you just have one idea or a more casual feature request, consider choosing Ideas / Feature Requests to get feedback via GitHub Discussions.

But any of the following can be considered a major change that needs to have a Proposal:

• Any change that impacts the public interfaces of Cloudberry Database.
• Any new component, module, or code that introduces a new concept into Cloudberry Database or alters the behavior of an existing one.
• Any large code refactors to address general code re-usability and structure.
• Any important breaking backward or forward compatibility.

Who​

Anyone can initiate one CP. For the proposer, it can be only you, a group of developers, or one team. Please list all the proposers' names in the proposal.

Proposal lifecycle​

                            --> Accepted --> In Progress --> Completed
                            |                     v
Draft --> Discuss --> Vote -|                  Inactive
                            |                     v
                            --> Rejected       Abandoned

Draft​

You can submit your proposal via GitHub Discussions template. Fill all the fields as you can, at least the required ones, including:

• Proposal title. Be direct, and clear. Please also keep the prefix [Proposal] starting with the title.
• Proposers. List all the proposers, can be only one, many people, a team, company.
• Proposal Status. Choose one from the following: Under Discussion/In Progress/Completed/Inactive/Abandoned, Under Discussion as default when you initiate the CP.
• Abstract. A clear and concise description of what your proposal is.
• Motivation. Please outline the motivation and why it should be implemented.
• Implementation. How you implement your proposal, including the principle, design, plans, etc.

Discuss​

When your proposal draft is ready, you can share the GitHub link to our #dev Slack Channel or mention others to get feedback from the community. It is important to be responsive to any questions or concerns raised by others. This stage is intended to gather a variety of feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism from different perspectives.

The duration of your CP is at least 7 days, allowing community members from various timezones to view and participate in discussions until all concerns have been addressed.

Vote​

Once you or someone else feels like there’s a rough consensus on the idea and there’s no strong opposition after the Discussion, you can move your proposal to the Vote phase.

For this, you will comment on your proposal's GitHub Discussions to start the Vote. We follow a vote on code modifications for Apache projects as described here. Votes are represented as numbers between -1 and +1, with '-1' meaning 'no' and '+1' meaning 'yes.'

The in-between values indicate how strongly the voting individual feels. Here are some examples of fractional votes and what the voter might be communicating with them:

• +0: 'I don't feel strongly about it, but I'm okay with this.'
• -0: 'I won't get in the way, but I'd rather we didn't do this.'
• -0.5: 'I don't like this idea, but I can't find any rational justification for my feelings.'
• ++1: 'Wow! I like this! Let's do it!'
• -0.9: 'I really don't like this, but I'm not going to stand in the way if everyone else wants to go ahead with it.'
• +0.9: 'This is a cool idea and I like it, but I don't have the time/the skills necessary to help out.'

The voting has to run for at least 72 hours to provide an opportunity for all concerned persons to participate, regardless of their geographic location, and it’s a good practice to extend this time if most of this period is a weekend. The whole community is encouraged to give +1 and -1 votes.

The vote as well as Discuss is a consensus-seeking process, “the goal is not to win votes or come to a unanimous agreement, but rather to ensure that there’s a forum for people to raise and discuss their concerns and that nobody feels strongly enough to block the group from moving forward. Consensus-seeking emphasizes discussion over enumeration: Rough consensus is achieved when all issues are addressed, but not necessarily accommodated.”

For the vote, we are used to majority approval, that is, there must be more positive than negative votes.

Accepted​

Congratulations! Your proposal has been accepted.

Next up is breaking down tasks. You should break down tasks on Cloudberry Database GitHub issues page. Once a proposal is accepted, it moves into the implementation phase, status as In Progress.

In Progress​

Developers or contributors start working on the proposed changes, actively developing and integrating them into the project codebase.

Now you can start contributing and - more importantly - you can, and probably should, encourage others to contribute to your project. However, this is optional and up to your discretion. You can learn how to contribute and communicate with other community members. Use your imagination and various communication channels for ways to encourage people if you do not already have contributors following your idea. It is advisable that several people work on the CP so that the knowledge is shared.

Rejected​

If the proposal fails to gather enough support or does not align with the project's goals or guidelines, it may be rejected. This means the proposal will not move forward and is considered closed.

Completed​

When all the proposed changes and related tasks are fully implemented, tested, and integrated into the project, the proposal is marked as Completed. The new feature or enhancement is available for use in the project's release or codebase.

Inactive​

We will move CP to Inactive if no updates over six months. This can occur due to various reasons, such as a lack of resources or a need for further discussions. The proposal remains open but is not actively being worked on or progressed.

If someone can take over the proposal to proceed forward, it will be marked as In Progress.

Abandoned​

If a proposal has been Inactive because of losing relevance, support, or the resources needed for implementation for over 12 months, it will be deemed Abandoned. Abandoned proposals are no longer actively considered and are closed without being implemented.

If you want to restart an Abandoned proposal, you must follow the same procedure as before, in case there have been any changes since it was abandoned.

List of Cloudberry Database Proposals(CPs)​

You can find more proposal here.