Deciding between two choices

[Marshall Rose]

> Margaret,
> 
> Thursday, December 19, 2002, 4:34:57 PM, you wrote:
> >>When a working group:
> >>
> >>      1. Has a clear sense of what problem it is trying to solve
> >>      2. Has a sense of urgency to produce something useful in a timely
> >>      fashion
> >>      3. Has a core of competent workers
> >>      4. Has working group leadership (and an Area Director) able to manage
> >>      the process with focus and timeliness -- ie, able to cut through
> >>      distractions
> >>
> >>then no, we do not have a problem with making or sticking to decisions
> 
> Margaret> Which one of these factors was missing from the great SNMPv2
> Margaret> wars?
> 
> I was not in the middle of that, so my understanding of its dynamics could
> be fundamentally flawed.  But my sense is that #1 was the problem, in that
> the very well-oiled core of experts split on the details of how to solve the
> problem.  (Well, ok, that's a clear sense of solution, not just a clear
> sense of problem.)
> 
> A different way of viewing it is that #3 failed, in that there developed
> more than one strong core team.
> 
> Or, of course, we could go with Marshall's assessment that it was #4.  But
> what is significant is that we are not finding ourselves needing to go
> outside that list of factors.

well, maybe #1 did have some impact as a root cause...

/mtr