Killing old/slow groups - transition thinking

Dave Crocker dhc@dcrocker.net
Tue, 10 Dec 2002 15:47:57 -0800


Randy,


Tuesday, December 10, 2002, 2:33:30 PM, you wrote:
>> So the problem is not simply to set "artificial" deadlines and then ignore
>> them, but to set deadlines that are consonant with the industry we are
>> serving, and to meet those deadlines.

Randy> is it?

Randy> e.g., what would happen if we removed all dates from the milestones?

It is difficult to imagine the need for answering this question, since a
venture into such a basic question leads to such other basics as "why bother
to do standards."

However, since you ask: The practical reality of current IETF operation is
that that is pretty much what we have done already. We ignore milestones.

As a result, we have extremely protracted efforts. And the result often are
specifications that are bloated, complex, and/or buggy and have lost market
relevance.

Projects that have reasonable milestones -- that is, milestones that balance
market need, technical quality and market timeliness requirements -- and
show intelligent attention to those milestones are usually called "well
managed" because they turn out good work.

d/
-- 
 Dave Crocker  <mailto:dhc@dcrocker.net>
 TribalWise <http://www.tribalwise.com>
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