Subject: [edu-team] draft-narten-successful-bof-01b.txt

From: Thomas Narten <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:44:18 -0500

Here is the current snapshot of an ID I first published before the
last IETF. I'm planning on publishing this next week.

Thomas

INTERNET-DRAFT                                             Thomas Narten
                                                                     IBM
<draft-narten-successful-bof-01b.txt>                   February 3, 2006

                Considerations for Having a Successful BOF

                   <draft-narten-successful-bof-01b.txt>

Status of this Memo

   By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
   applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
   have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
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   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft expires in six months.

Abstract

   This document discusses tactics and strategy for hosting a successful
   IETF Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Session, especially one oriented at the
   formation of an IETF Working Group. It is based on the experiences of
   having participated in numerous BOFs, both successful and
   unsuccessful.

   Contents

   Status of this Memo..........................................    1

   1.  Introduction.............................................    2

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   2.  Ideal Steps..............................................    3

   3.  The BOF Itself...........................................    7

   4.  Pitfalls.................................................    8

   5.  Miscellaneous............................................   10
      5.1.  Chairing............................................   10

   6.  Security Considerations..................................   11

   7.  IANA Considerations......................................   11

   8.  Acknowledgments..........................................   11

   9.  Normative References.....................................   11

   10.  Informative References..................................   11

   11.  Author's Address......................................   11

1.  Introduction

   This document provides suggestions on how to host a successful BOF at
   an IETF meeting. It is hoped that by documenting the methodologies
   that have proven successful, as well as listing some pitfalls, BOF
   organizers will improve their chances of hosting a BOF with a
   positive outcome.

   There are many reasons for hosting a BOF. Some BOFs are intended to
   be a one-shot presentation on a particular issue, in order to provide
   information to the IETF Community.  Such BOFs are not intended to
   result in the formation of a Working Group (WG). In many cases,
   however, the intent is to form a WG. In those cases, the goal of the
   BOF is to demonstrate that the community has agreement that:

    - there is a problem that needs solving, and the IETF is the right
      group to attempt solving it.

    - there is a critical mass of participants willing to work on the
      problem (e.g., write drafts, review drafts, etc.)

    - the scope of the problem is well defined and understood, that is,
      people generally understand what the WG will work on (and what
      not) and what its actual deliverables will be

    - there is agreement that the specific deliverables (i.e., proposed

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      documents) are the right set

    - it is believed that the WG has a reasonable probability of having
      success (i.e., in completing the deliverables in its charter in a
      timely fashion)

2.  Ideal Steps

   The following steps present a sort of "ideal" sequence for hosting a
   BOF where the goal is formation of a working group. The important
   observation to make here is that most of these involve having
   significant public discussion, with sufficient time for iteration and
   broad participation, so that much of the work of the BOF can be done
   on a public mailing list in advance of -- rather than during --- the
   BOF itself.

   It is also important to recognize the timing constraints. As
   described in detail below, the deadline for scheduling BOFs is
   approximately one month prior to the IETF meeting. Working backwards
   from that date, taking into consideration the time required to write
   drafts, have public discussion, allow the ADs to evaluate the
   proposed BOF, etc., the right time to start preparing for a BOF is
   the meeting prior to the one in which the BOF is desired. By
   implication, starting the work aimed at leading to a BOF only 2
   months prior to an IETF meeting is in most cases too late, and will
   likely result in the BOF being delayed until the following IETF
   meeting.

   1) A small group of individuals gets together privately, discusses a
      possible problem statement, and identifies the work to be done.
      The group acts as a sort of "design team" to formulate a problem
      statement, identify possible work items, and propose an agenda for
      a BOF.

      Possible substeps:

      a) Consider whether the work might already fall within scope for
         an existing Working Group, in which case a BOF might not even
         be necessary. Individual Working Group charters can be found at
         http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/wg-dir.html and indicate what
         a group is scoped to work on.

      b) Select an area or areas where the work most naturally fits in
         by identifying WGs that most closely relate to the proposed
         work. Note that it is not uncommon to find that a work item
         could easily fit into two (or more) different areas and that no
         one area is the obvious home.

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      c) Consult with specific WGs to see whether there is interest or
         whether the work is in scope. This can be done by posting
         messages directly to WG mailing lists, contacting the WG
         chairs, or contacting individuals known to participate in a
         particular WG (e.g., from their postings or from documents they
         have authored).

      d) Consult with an area-specific mailing list about possible
         interest. (Most areas have their own area-specific mailing
         lists. Follow the links under each area at
         http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/wg-dir.html to find details.)

      e) Produce one or more Internet Drafts, describing the problem
         and/or related work. It cannot be emphasized enough that for
         the BOF, drafts relating to understanding the problem space are
         much more valuable than drafts proposing specific solutions.

      Timeline: This step can easily take 1-2 months; hence, begin 3-4
      months before an IETF meeting.

   2) The group may (or may not) approach an Area Director (or other
      recognized or experienced leader) to informally float the BOF and
      get feedback on the proposed work, scope of the charter, specific
      steps that need to be taken before submitting a formal BOF
      request, etc. By "leader", we mean persons with significant IETF
      experience who can provide helpful advice; individuals who have
      successfully hosted BOFs before, current or former WG chairs, IESG
      or IAB members, would be good candidates.

      The dividing line between step 1) and 2) is not exact. At some
      point, one will need to approach one or more Area Directors (ADs)
      with a specific proposal that can be commented on. Step 1) helps
      shape an idea into something concrete enough that an AD can
      understand the purpose and provide concrete feedback. On the other
      hand, one shouldn't spend too much time on step 1) if the answer
      at step 2) would turn out to be "oh, we had a BOF on that once
      before, have you reviewed the archives?". Thus, there may be some
      iteration involving going back and forth between steps 1) and 2).
      Also, a quick conversation with an AD might lead them to suggest
      some specific individuals or WGs you should consult with.

      It may turn out that it is unclear which area proposed work best
      fits in. In such cases, when approaching multiple ADs, it is best
      to approach the ADs approximately simultaneously, state that you
      are unsure of which area the work fits in, and ask for advice
      (e.g., by stating "I'm not sure which area this work best fits
      under, but it looks like it might be Internet or Security or

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      both"). When contacting multiple ADs, it is strongly advised that
      you inform them of which other ADs you are conversing with. In
      particular, it is usually counterproductive and not advisable to
      go "AD shopping", where if one AD gives you an answer you don't
      like, you go to another, without telling him/her what the first AD
      said, in the hopes of getting a different answer.

      To summarize, steps 1) and 2) involve a lot of "socializing an
      idea," that is, having discussions with a number of different
      people to try and get agreement on the problem and the need for
      and appropriateness of having a BOF. How much such discussion is
      needed is very subjective, but it is critical in terms of getting
      agreement that a BOF is appropriate. One way to tell if you are
      close to getting it right: if when talking to someone about your
      idea for the first time, they quickly agree that a BOF seems in
      order and don't have any major concerns.

      Timeline: Steps 1-2) can easily take 1-2 months; hence, begin 3-4
      months before an IETF meeting.

   3) Create a public mailing list and post a "call for participation"
      for the proposed BOF agenda on various mailing lists (e.g., the
      ietf list). The call for participation advertises that a
      "community of interest" is being formed to gauge whether there is
      sufficient interest to host a BOF. The goal is to draw in other
      interested potential participants, to allow them to help shape the
      BOF (e.g., by giving them time to write a draft, ask for agenda
      time, help scope the work of the proposed work, argue that a BOF
      is (or is not) needed, etc.)

      Timeline: This step can easily take 1 month or longer; it also
      needs to be started well before the Internet-Drafts cutoff (to
      allow participants to submit drafts); hence begin 2-3 months
      before the IETF meeting.

   4) Have real mailing list discussion. It is not enough for a handful
      of people to assert that they want a BOF; there needs to be
      broader community interest. A public mailing list allows ADs (and
      others) to gauge how much interest there really is on a topic
      area, as well as gauge how well the problem statement has been
      scoped, etc. At this phase of the BOF preparation, the emphasis
      should be on getting agreement on the problem statement;
      discussions about specific solutions tends to be distracting and
      unhelpful.

      Timeline: this step can easily take 1 month or longer; hence begin
      2 months before the IETF meeting.

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   5) Submit a formal request to have a BOF. Instructions for submitting
      a formal request can be found at
      http://www.ietf.org/instructions/MTG-SLOTS.html and
      http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1bof-procedures.txt.  Note that as part
      of making a formal request, the organizers must identify the Area
      (the area Area Directors will be required to approve the BOF),
      include a proposed BOF agenda, estimate the attendance, list
      conflicts with other sessions that should be avoided, etc.

      If the previous steps have been followed, the Area Directors (ADs)
      should be in a good position to gauge whether there is sufficient
      interest to justify approval of a BOF.

      Note: it almost goes without saying that without one or more
      Internet Drafts at this point, it is generally pointless to ask an
      AD to approve a BOF.

      Timeline: The Secretariat publishes an "important meeting dates"
      calendar along with meeting information. There is a firm deadline
      (about 1 month prior to the meeting) for submitting a formal BOF
      scheduling request. Note: that at the time of the deadline, an AD
      will need to have sufficient information about the BOF to approve
      or reject the request, so all of the previous steps will need to
      have completed.

   6) During the 2-4 weeks before an IETF (assuming a BOF has been
      approved and scheduled), the focus (on the mailing list) should be
      on identifying areas of agreement and areas of disagreement. Since
      disagreements or "lack of consensus" tends to be the main reason
      for not forming a WG, focusing on those specific areas where "lack
      of consensus" exists is critically important. In general, only
      after those disagreements have been resolved will a WG be formed,
      thus, the main goal should be to find consensus and work through
      the areas of disagreement.  Alternatively, a specific case should
      be made about why the charter as it is written is the best one, in
      spite of the stated opposition.

   7) Prior to the BOF, it is critical to produce a proposed charter and
      iterate on it on the mailing list to attempt to get a consensus
      charter. Ultimately, the most important question to ask during a
      BOF is: "should a WG with the following charter be formed?". It
      goes without saying that a charter with shortcomings (no matter
      how seemingly trivial to fix) will not achieve consensus if folk
      still have issues with the specific wording.

   8) Decide what questions will be asked during the BOF itself. Since
      the exact wording of the questions is critical (and hard to do on
      the fly), it is strongly recommended that those questions be

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      floated on the mailing list and with the ADs prior to the BOF, so
      people understand what they will be asked to give approval to, and
      to allow the questions to be modified (prior to the BOF) to remove
      ambiguities, etc. Likewise, discussing those questions in advance
      may lead to refinement of the charter so that the questions can be
      affirmatively answered

   9) At the meeting, but before the BOF takes place, plan a meeting
      with all of the presenters to have them meet each other, review
      the agenda and make sure everyone understands what is expected of
      them (e.g., what time constraints they will be under when
      presenting). Use this time to also work through any disagreements
      that still remain. Do the same "in the hallway" with other
      interested parties!

   10) Consult the tutorial schedule and consider attending relevant
      tutorial sessions ("Working Group Chair Training", "Working Group
      Leadership Training", etc.).  This is especially the case if you
      are considering being the chair of a potential WG. Since the role
      of the WG chair and BOF chair have a number of parallels, a number
      of the topics covered in the tutorial apply to hosting a BOF and
      developing a charter.

3.  The BOF Itself

   For the BOF itself, it is critically important to focus on the bottom
   line:

      What is it that one is attempting to achieve during the BOF?

   A good BOF organizer keeps a firm focus on the purpose of the BOF and
   crafts an agenda in support of that goal. Just as important,
   presentations that do not directly support the goal should be
   excluded, as they often become distractions, sow confusion, and
   otherwise take focus away from the purpose of the BOF.  If the goal
   is to form a WG, everything should lead to an (obvious) answer to the
   following question:

      Does the room agree that the IETF should form a WG with the
      following (specific) charter?

   One of the best ways to ensure a "yes" answer to the above, is by
   performing adequate preparation before the BOF to ensure that the
   community as a whole already agrees that the answer is "yes". How
   does one do that? One good way seems to be:

   1) Have a public discussion with sufficient time to allow iteration

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      and discussion. (hence, start a minimum of 3 months prior to the
      IETF meeting).

   2) Work with the community to iterate on the charter, and be sure to
      address the significant concerns that are being raised. (One can
      address the concerns in advance -- and get advance agreement, or
      one can have those concerns be raised (again) during the BOF -- in
      which case it is likely that the proposed charter will not be good
      enough to get agreement on during the actual BOF).

   3) During the BOF, keep the agenda tightly focused on supporting the
      need for the WG and otherwise making the case that the group has
      identified a clearly-scoped charter, and has agreement on what the
      set of deliverables should be.

4.  Pitfalls

   Over the years, a number of pitfalls have been (repeatedly) observed:

   1) Waiting too long before getting started. It is very difficult to
      prepare for a BOF on short notice. Moreover, ADs are placed in a
      no-win situation when asked to approve a BOF for which the
      community has not had a chance to participate. Steps 1-4 in
      Section 2 above are designed to show the ADs that there is
      community support for a particular effort. Short-circuiting those
      steps force an AD to make a judgment call with (usually) too
      little information. Moreover, because the community has not been
      involved, it is much more likely that significant (and valid)
      objections will be raised. Often, those objections could have been
      dealt with in advance -- had there been sufficient time to work
      through them in advance.

   2) Too much discussion/focus on solutions, rather than showing that
      support exists for the problem statement itself, and that the
      problem is well-understood and scoped. The purpose of the BOF is
      almost never to show that there are already proposed solutions,
      but to demonstrate that there is a real problem that needs
      solving, a solution would be beneficial to the community, it is
      believed that a solution is achievable and that there is a
      critical mass of community support to actually put in the real
      work of developing a solution.

   3) Asking the wrong question during the BOF. Often, BOF organizers
      feel like there is a need to ask the question "shall we form a
      WG?". But, unless the question is clear, properly scoped, etc.,
      asking such a question serves no purpose. Even worse, such

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      questions can demonstrate that there is no consensus (yet) for the
      work and thus no WG should be formed. The right questions to ask
      are generally along the lines of:

      1) Is there support to form a WG with the following charter? (that
         is, the charter itself is ready, as shown by community
         support.)

      2) Does the community think that that the problem statement is
         clear, well-scoped, solvable, and useful to solve?

      3) Can I see a show of hands for folk willing to review documents?
         (or comment on the mailing list?)

      4) Who would be willing to serve as an editor for the following
         document(s)? (BOF chairs should take note of individuals who
         raise their hands, but it is also a useful gauge to see there
         is a critical mass of editors to work on all the documents that
         are to be produced.)

      5) Does the community think that given the charter revisions
         discussed during the BOF (subject to review and finalization on
         the mailing list), a WG should be formed?

      6) How many people feel that a WG should not be formed? (If the
         number of no responses is significant, it would help to ask
         those saying no why they are opposed.)

      7) Before asking a particular question, it is sometimes very
         appropriate to ask: Do people feel like they have sufficient
         information to answer the following question or is it premature
         to ask the following question?

      Examples of unreasonable questions to ask:

      1) Asking folk to approve or review a charter that is put on
         screen but has not been posted to the mailing list sufficiently
         in advance. (You cannot ask folk to approve something they have
         not seen.)

   4) Poorly advertised in advance, thus, the BOF itself does not
      include the "right" participants. This can happen for a number of
      reasons, including:

       - BOF is given a "cute" but unintuitive name (or acronym),
         causing people to not realize that it would be of interest to
         them

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       - failing to advertise the BOF in advance to the community of
         people that might be interested. At a minimum, the existence of
         a proposed BOF should be advertised on the IETF list as well as
         specific WG lists that are somewhat related.

    5) Providing agenda time for the "wrong" presentations. There is an
       (unfortunate) tendency to given anyone who requests agenda time
       an opportunity to speak. This is often a mistake. Presentations
       should be limited to those that address the purpose of the BOF.
       More important, presentations should not distract from the BOFs
       purpose, or open up ratholes that are a distraction to the more
       basic purpose of the BOF. Examples of problematic presentations:

        - presentations on specific solutions, when the purpose of the
          BOF is to get agreement on the problem statement and the need
          for a WG. Solutions at this point are too-often "half-baked"
          and allow discussion to rathole on aspects of the solutions,
          when instead the focus should be on getting agreement on
          whether to form a WG.

    6) Poor time management, leading to insufficient time for discussion
       of the key issues (this is often closely related to 5). When
       presentations run over their alloted time, the end result is
       either squeezing someone else's presentation, or having
       insufficient discussion time. Neither is acceptable nor helpful.
       BOF chairs need to give presenters just enough time to make key
       points -- and no more. It may well be helpful to go over a
       presenter's slides in advance, to ensure they are on-topic and
       that they will fit within the time slot.

5.  Miscellaneous

5.1.  Chairing

   BOF organizers often assume that they will be chairing a BOF (and the
   eventual WG). Neither assumption is always true. ADs need to ensure
   that a BOF runs smoothly and is productive. For some topics, it is a
   given that the BOF will be contentious. In such cases, ADs may want
   to have a more experienced person chairing or co-chairing the BOF.
   Also, those interested in organizing the BOF often are the most
   interested in driving a particular technology (and may have strongly
   held views about what direction an effort should take). Working
   groups are often more effective when passionately-involved parties
   are allowed to focus on the technical work, rather than on the
   management work. Thus do not be surprised (or offended!)  if the AD

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   want to pick one or more co-chairs for either the BOF or a followon
   WG.

6.  Security Considerations

   This document has no known security implications.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document makes no requests to IANA.

8.  Acknowledgments

   This document has benefited from specific feedback from Brian
   Carpenter, Spencer Dawkins, Mark Townsley and Bert Wijnen.

9.  Normative References

10.  Informative References

11.  Author's Address

   Thomas Narten
   IBM Corporation
   3039 Cornwallis Ave.
   PO Box 12195 - BRQA/502
   Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2195

   Phone: 919-254-7798
   EMail: [email-masked]

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