Today, LF AI & Data Foundation is releasing an updated version of its project lifecycle document that defines the project stages, requirements for a project to be accepted in each stage, transitioning between stages, and the benefits associated with each stage. Since the document’s last revision over two years ago, we have gained experience in onboarding over a dozen new projects and have received feedback that has allowed us to move forward with these improvements.
Revisions to the new document include:
- Introducing Sandbox stage. This new stage is specific to projects that intend to join LF AI & Data in the Incubation stage in the future. The Sandbox stage provides time to lay the foundations for Incubation and is designated for very new projects. For example, new projects that are designed to extend one or more LF AI & Data projects with functionality or interoperability libraries, or independent projects that fit the LF AI & Data mission and provide the potential for a novel approach to existing functional areas.
- Improving the requirements to incubate projects. These improvements more specifically require that submitted projects for the Incubation stage have at least two organizations actively contributing to the project, have a defined Technical Steering Committee (TSC), have a sponsor who is an existing LF AI & Data member, have earned at least 300 stars on GitHub, and have achieved and maintained a Core Infrastructure Initiative Best Practices Silver Badge.
- Improving the requirements to graduate projects. These improvements more specifically require projects to have a healthy number of code contributions coming from at least five organizations, have reached a minimum of 1,000 stars on GitHub, and have achieved and maintained a Core Infrastructure Initiative Best Practices Gold Badge.
- Adding specific language to clarify the benefits for projects hosted in every stage
- Elaborating on the Archive Stage projects to eliminate ambiguities
- Adding information on the Annual Review of projects. This annual review will include an assessment as to whether projects in Sandbox and Incubation are making adequate progress towards the Graduation stage; and that projects in the Graduation stage are maintaining positive growth and adoption.
- General edits for the purpose of clarity
Dr. Ibrahim Haddad, Executive Director of LF AI & Data, said: “It’s been great to witness and experience the growth in LF AI & Data’s hosted projects as we’ve added 15 new projects in 2020. With this intensive experience came a lot of learned lessons. The LF AI & Data community took these learnings and used them to update our Project Lifecycle Document introducing a new project stage – Sandbox – and raising the bar for the admission into other stages. I am looking forward to welcoming new projects in our updated stages and continuing the growth of our community.”
Dr. Jim Spohrer, Chair of the Technical Advisory Council in LF AI & Data said: “I am very excited about the sandbox stage that will help us engage with and provide visibility for early-stage open source AI and Data community projects. Having such a stage supported in LF AI & Data is a true best practice for steadily growing foundations.”
New projects joining the LF AI & Data Foundation will be required to follow the process and requirements outlined in the updated project lifecycle document.
If you are interested in hosting your open source AI or Data project with the LF AI & Data Foundation, please review the project lifecycle document and email us via info@live-lfprojects3.linuxfoundation.org. We’re eager to help and discuss with you such possibilities.
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