Design Teams

CWG IANA Stewardship Transition
Guidelines for a CWG Design Team

Definition

A Design Team is a small group of qualified[1] people formed around a highly specific issue, with a clear deliverable and with a time limited schedule that is part of the critical path[2].  

Life Cycle of a Design Team

The following is a description of the work plan and process for the life cycle of a Design Team:

Defining the issue: the issue should be communicated in less than one page in the Request for a CWG Design Team. The issue should be relevant, clear, specific, and critical to the success of the overall project.

Creating the Design Team: the co-Chairs will oversee the creation of all Design Teams, with input from the CWG. Once agreed, the Design Team will be assigned a unique Design Team number. A register of Design Teams and related issues will be kept by support staff and publicly available on the Wiki.

Relationship to CWG

A Design Team should deliver work in a short period [2 weeks or less] according to the set mandate and will be dissolved after delivery of work product. Results of a Design Team need to be approved by the CWG participants prior to integration into the evolving CWG Transition Proposal. Key points about the relationship to the CWG: 

• The output of a Design Team is input to the CWG, not a final document. Such a document must not be considered as more important than any other input to the CWG
• For a work product to be considered by the CWG the Design Team must publish it to the CWG list at least 24 hours prior to the meeting being held
• Design Teams that complete their work will be disbanded and new ones will be created to address new issues and points of convergence as the CWG continues to develop the Transition Proposal
• Failure of a Design Team to deliver will affect the overall project schedule

In addition, any participant can write an alternative proposal and ask the CWG to consider it. In the case of competing proposals the decision on which document to work further on must be made by the CWG. However, if Design Teams work as intended, their output will be of a quality that speaks for itself.

Composition

The proposal for a Design Team must include:

• A lead participant responsible for delivering the work product to the CWG
• A list of potential participants as well as their Statement of Interest (SOI) and qualification for the design team (1 paragraph)

The Design Team Lead is responsible for coordinating the work, updating the CWG at its weekly meetings and most importantly delivering the results.

Unless there are clear requirements to the contrary a Design Team should typically involve [5] participants but not more than [7].

Work Methods

Each Design Team will be assigned a mailing list for its discussions. Only members of the Design Team will be allowed to post to the list but the archives of the list will be public. It is expected that most of the work can be carried out via the mailing list and online document editing. Documents need to be in Microsoft Office format/s.

There will be limited support for Design Teams unless otherwise arranged. Teleconferences and a virtual meeting room will be available, but must be scheduled with staff in advance and are subject to availability.

Staff may be able to offer writing and research support but this has to be pre-arranged.

If the Design Team encounters an issue that will make it impossible to work to the agreed time, this must be communicated to the co-Chairs promptly. Issues will be logged into the CWG Design Team list.