Here's an update from the Chair of the JCP and director of the JCP Program office: Patrick Curran

http://java.ulitzer.com/node/965152


JSR Watch: Here’s to Progress

And here’s to the next 10 years!
By Patrick Curran

May 15, 2009 03:00 PM EDT
Reads: 560

The end of the year is an opportunity to review the past year's activity, and to present this to our Executive Committee (EC) members, to our broader membership, and to the general public. So this month I will summarize our progress during the past year.

PMO Initiatives
First, in addition to the ongoing work of moving JSRs through the process (more on this later), the JCP engaged in a couple of new initiatives around transparency and agility.

I've addressed the transparency issue relatively recently in this column, so I won't say much more here except to remind you that we are now strongly encouraging all Expert Groups (EGs) to work in an open and transparent manner by adopting practices such as the use of public mailing lists and issue-tracking mechanisms. Of course, it would be hypocritical for us to encourage this behavior in EGs while continuing to hold Executive Committee (EC) meetings in private, so there too we are becoming more open. Starting in September 2008 the ECs agreed to make full minutes and meeting materials accessible to the general public rather than simply posting summaries that only JCP members could read. (We reserve the right to go into Private Session from time to time when sensitive matters are discussed, but we don't expect to do this very often.) If you want to see what we're up to, the meeting materials are accessible.

As for agility, when I reviewed 2007 activity this time last year it became apparent that the amount of time it takes Expert Groups to complete their work varies significantly. Some manage to finish in a little more than a year, while others take several years. Also, we know that there are some JSRs that are effectively stalled and really ought to be withdrawn. As a first step to encourage agility we decided to introduce a new category for JSRs that have made no progress for 18 months - these will be labeled as "Inactive" on jcp.org. The PMO will work with the Spec Leads of these JSRs to encourage them to pick up the pace. If it becomes clear that the JSR is unlikely to complete, we will encourage them to withdraw it. In addition, we plan to review all JSRs that reach completion, and others as appropriate, to identify and publicize the good (and bad) practices that affect the speed with which JSRs move through the process.


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