Project governance
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Main governance bodies
In the context of our projects, governance encompasses the policies, the procedures and the documents that define their decision-making procedures.
Projects almost always have a main technical and a business governance body.
All of our projects document a technical community governance structure (“Technical Charter”). Anyone can contribute to our projects as long as they follow the Technical Charter.
With very few exceptions, our projects maintain separate governing bodies for running the technical project, and for collecting and spending money.
We do this deliberately, so that we have a thorough separation between contributing dues as a member, and achieving technical influence.
We achieve this by having separate governance policies and procedures for each, and in some cases, they actually exist in different entities.
Business governance
- Called “Governing Board” or “Board of Directors”.
- Companies become members by paying dues.
- Makes decisions on how to spend the money that they collect.
- Decides strategic policy.
- Governed by “Bylaws” or a “Charter”.
Technical governance
- Called “TSC”, “TAC”, “TOC”, etc.
- Individuals become members by making technical contributions.
- Sometimes leadership roles are only for members, but not always.
- Membership can always be earned by non-members.
- Does not collect or spend money.
- Decides technical policy.
- Governed by “Technical Charter”.
Note: TSC is generally used as the committee overseeing a specific project. A TAC/TOC/TOB/CPCC (Technical Advisory, Oversight, Cross Project) is a committee that helps multiple technical projects (each with a TSC) under an umbrella structure coordinate.