Subject: WG Review: Improved Cross-Area Review (icar)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 11:34:37 -0500

A new IETF working group has been proposed in the General Area.  
The IESG has not made any determination as yet.  The following description 
was submitted, and is provided for informational purposes only.  Please send your 
comments to the IESG mailing list ([email-masked]) by February 4th.

    Improved Cross-Area Review (icar)
    ---------------------------------

       Current Status: Proposed Working Group

       WG Description:

           The WG will work out mechanisms for improved cross-functional
           review within the IETF, addressing the issues identified by the
           PROBLEM WG. This includes a better community review, as well as
           more structured pre-IESG review that may be used to improve
           scalability of the IESG review function.

           Definitions:

             o Cross-functional review: document review covering different
             aspects of Internet technology, including those represented by
             WGs within different IETF areas.

             o Community review: document review performed by individual IETF
             participants and not caused by their responsibilities within
             the IETF management structure.

             o Structured review: more formal and role-based document review
             performed by individuals assuming certain responsibilities (such
             as by WG chairs, directorate and IESG members.)

           It is an explicit goal of the WG to come up with mechanisms
           encouraging early review of the documents while ideas are still
           in the formation stage. An early review is best for catching
           architectural problems while they're still relatively easy to
           solve. In particular, many cross-functional interactions can be
           spotted and dealt with, thus avoiding many "late surprises". A
           final review (currently done by the IESG) can catch remaining
           cross-functional interactions, as well as deal with overall
           quality issues.

           The WG will cooperate with others in starting and evaluating
           experiments with early community and structured reviews. The
           evaluation of such experiments may be published as Informational
           RFCs if the group so desires.

           The WG will also coordinate with other WGs involved in the IETF
           reform process on proposed changes to the IETF Working Group
           operations and Standards process if those are considered
           necessary.