[DISCUSS] Traffic Control high level graduation plan

[Dave Neuman <ne...@apache.org>]

 Hey All,
A few of us have been informally discussing a plan for graduating from the
Apache Incubator and I thought now would be a good time to get the plan out
to a larger audience and solicit feedback.  We have been incubating for
about 18 months — since July 12, 2016 —  and it is my goal to see if we can
graduate by May 1, 2018 (in time to celebrate at our yet-to-be-planned
spring summit)!  I think this is a very attainable goal, and if we all
agree this is what we want to do, I will do everything I can to get us
there.

If you are interested in what Apache requires to graduate, you can read the
Incubator graduation guide[1] or take a look at the talk I did at our fall
summit[2].  It is a fairly straight forward and well defined process. There
aren’t many guides for knowing when you are ready to graduate, I think that
is something the project “feels” and decides that they want to do.
However, there are things that you must prove you can do as a project
before you can graduate.  All of the details are in the links above.

Here is the high level, informal plan that I think gets us to a May
graduation.  I know people tend to freak out when they see dates, but I
tried to keep them reasonable when I (mostly) made them up.

*TC -> Graduation*

   -  Release 2.1 through the IPMC and announced by 1/19
   -
      - The release was sent to the incubator about a week ago (1/2) and we
      have yet to receive any votes, hopefully that changes in the
next week with
      some help from our mentors.
   - Traffic Control 2.2 to IPMC vote by 3/1
   -
      - This release should remove our JSON.org dependency which I believe
      is the last dependency that is not compatible with Apache.
   - Project Vote for Graduation by 3/1
   - Update Incubation status page[3] and website checklist[4] by 3/30
   - Prepare Charter for graduation from incubator by 3/30
   - IPMC graduation vote requested by 4/1
   - Resolution to Apache board by 5/1


Obviously this plan is very high level, and it is intended to be, since we
don’t know what we don’t know yet.  I think the key to making this work is
to get our 2.1 and 2.2 releases through the IPMC without many, or any,
licensing issues.  This will hopefully give the IPMC some more confidence
in us as a project and help make the graduation process easier.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please let me know.  We
are a community and I want this to be a community decision that everyone
feels good about.

Thanks,
Dave

[1] http://incubator.apache.org/guides/graduation.html
[2] https://goo.gl/QiGekn
[3] http://incubator.apache.org/projects/trafficcontrol.html
[4] https://whimsy.apache.org/pods/project/trafficcontrol