Design Process

Pioneer is an open source project. As such we don’t have a single designer but rather try to design based on the opinions and ideas of our contributors. We don’t have any official membership or core group, but instead work towards rough consensus.

As is common in open source, we operate as a meritocracy, so when determining the outcome of the discussion those who have made more contributions or have more experience in the area of discussion will have their opinion valued more highly.

This page describes the process by which ideas and discussions are turned in to “official” designs.

Initial discussion

Discussion on a design issue will begin. Where and how this happens can vary. Often it will happen in IRC, but could also happen in an issue, on the forum or elsewhere.

As with all things in this project, if it doesn’t end up in an issue or on this wiki then it didn’t happen. Someone needs to summarise the discussion and enter it into an issue or wiki topic. Most of the time the wiki will be the right place.

Tell everyone

Once the summary of the discussion is written up you need to give everyone a chance to comment or build on it. Not everyone that needs to be involved watches IRC or the forum or wherever the discussion happened. Spread the word appropriately to make sure all the key people get a chance to comment.

Close the discussion

We don’t want these things to go on forever. People should be allowed a chance to comment or dissent but once there’s been no discussion for a couple of days there’s no point dragging things out. Remember that things can be revisited in the future if it turns out to be wrong.

Rough consensus

By this stage it should be clear if rough consensus has been reached. If it hasn’t, then either the topic needs more discussion or just isn’t important enough. Put the discussion away for another day.

A design is born

Write the whole lot up into a page, and link it under Design somewhere.