On Sun, 2005-06-26 at 19:12 -0700, Andrew Swerdlow wrote: > Hi my name is Andrew, I just have a few questions which I could not quite > find on the web site. > > I understand that you are very busy, I am doing a report on your project and > need some more information (if this is the wrong email address to send this > to, could you please direct it to the right source):
> 1) Does the project have formal requirements processes? If so can you > please describe the process (eg how they are added, removed, who decides > which requirements get developed and which do not, how are requirements > documented?). The project is broken down into smaller units each with a project lead and co-lead. Generally the project leads will decide in consultation with the community what goes into or is taken out of the project they lead. The project lead/co-lead organisation is documented on the website. Issuezilla is one of the main means of recording and ducumenting general project requirements, bugs, bug fixes, requests for enhancements etc. The mailing lists also record discussions etc and are archived. > 2) Your project is extremely successful (more than most commercial > projects). What would you say are the key factors for the success of your > project? Its Open Source is the fundamental one. This is an individual opinion but if it was just another office suite with paid for closed source licensing, no matter how good it was it would not have generated the interest. Other factors are: Its good enough for what most people need and getting better It provides a sense of community and commitment in its volunteers that surpasses that of people working just for the money. It provides Open XML based document format Its cross platform Its relatively easy to localise in any language including minority languages It has good import/export for proprietary file formats While it has some shortcomings compared to the market leader it also has some features such as direct pdf export that are better. > 3) How can I contribute code to the project? (what is the process) Contact the project lead of the project you have relevant code for and say what it is. Whether the code is accepted or not will depend on its quality. If you are well-known to the project and your work is a known quantity its likely that it will get accepted quicker than if you are an unknown quantity. Before contacting the relevant project lead (they are busy people) you might discuss your work on the development mailing list first so you know that what you have really is of value to the project. Normally this type of discussion would take place before you started writing the code. > 4) what is the organizational structure of the organization? (is everyone > volunteer?, who is the leader? Ect) Louis Suarez-Potts is the community manager. Some project leads are volunteers - eg Marketing Project. Some project leads are paid by a sponsor eg Sun. There is also a Community Council that in extreme cases has the power to remove a project lead. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMSL --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
