Technical Advisory Council (TAC) Overview

May 2025

Academy Software Foundation

Structure

Working Groups

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More at https://www.aswf.io/get-involved/#working-groups

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(Out of date - updates coming soon!)

TAC Responsibilities

The TAC’s responsibilities include:

• Setting an overall technical vision for the Academy Software Foundation
• Approving new projects and working groups;
• Overseeing the Project Lifecycle;
• Enabling collaboration between projects and working groups;
• Making recommendations to the Budget Committee for any resource needs;
• Voting on other decisions that come before the TAC.

Additional responsibilities are described in Section 7 of the Academy Software Foundation Charter.

What the TAC is NOT responsible for

• The TAC does not manage the day-to-day activities and operations of hosted projects and working groups, such as committer rights, release schedules, and roadmaps.
• The TAC is not responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of Academy Software Foundation. This is the responsibility of the foundation staff.
• The TAC does not directly manage the overall budget for the Academy Software Foundation. The TAC makes resource recommendations to the Budget Committee and Governing Board, and provides feedback on the use of those resources.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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TAC Composition

• The TAC voting members consist of:
• One representative appointed from each Premier member; and
• One representative appointed by the TSC of each project at the Adopted Stage
• Up to three (3) annually TAC appointed industry representatives
• See Section 7(b) of the Academy Software Foundation Charter for more information about composition.
• You can change your representative at any time by making a request at members.aswf.io.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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How to propose an agenda item

• Agenda for TAC meetings are managed at https://github.com/orgs/AcademySoftwareFoundation/projects/19
• Propose a topic for a TAC meeting at https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/new/choose
• Please submit your proposed agenda item at least 7 days prior to the meeting.
• Please be patient. TAC meeting agendas are often quite full, and the length of the meeting only allows the time for two larger topics per meeting, so if your topic is more than a short topic it may not scheduled for the next meeting.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Proposing an agenda item (continued)

• If we cannot accommodate your request in the upcoming meeting we may:
• Wait until the following meeting to discuss the topic
• Call a special meeting to discuss your topic, or
• Refer the topic to the appropriate committee or task force of the TAC
• We may ask you to provide slides 3 days before the meeting.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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TAC Materials

• Agendas for TAC meetings will be made available the day before the scheduled meeting
• Past meeting notes can be found here.
• No meeting of the TAC is recorded unless the TAC provides explicit consent to do so.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Project Lifecycle

The TAC reviews all projects and working groups on an annual cadence. These reviews are meant to gauge project progress, address issues, and assesses lifecycle stages:

• Sandbox
• Incubating
• Graduated ( Adopted )
• Archived

A vote to approve the annual review is required only if the TAC feels the project should move to a different lifecycle stage.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Working Groups

The foundation defines two types of working groups:

• Long Term (has a voting TAC representative)
• Regular

Their life cycles are simpler:

• Active
• Archived

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Discussion Channels

Relevant Mailing Lists

• TAC Public List: tac@lists.aswf.io
• TAC Private List: tac-private@lists.aswf.io
• This list is ONLY for sensitive topics
• Project and Working Group Leads: technical-project-leads@lists.aswf.io

Slack Channel

• You can join Academy Software Foundation slack here.
• To join the TAC Slack channel, make a request at members.aswf.io.

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Project Guidelines

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Governance & Contribution

Projects are unique, and our structure allows for flexibility to accommodate different needs.

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However, we have more in common than not, and all project should strive to ensure common baselines. This ensures:

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• Projects maintain the high quality and dependability that the ASWF strives to be known for
• Ease of onboarding for new contributors / projects
• Smooth interop and collaboration between Foundation projects

Governance

The Technical Steering Committee (TSC) is the leadership of the project. This committee's primary role is to:

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• Set the overall direction of the project
• Ensure the project community has the needed resources and infrastructure to succeed
• Resolve any issues within the project community
• Provide project updates to the TAC and the community at large
• Participate in code review and feature discussions

Governance

• The TSC is made up primarily of the primary committers or maintainers. However, it can also consist of primary stakeholders and dedicated users.
• TSC structure can vary, but projects should ensure that major contributors and stakeholders have equal opportunity to influence the project direction.
• A TSC does not have to equal its committers list, but it should be close - and usually, all committers would be expected to be voting TSC members.
• TSC’s should audit their TSC members annually.

Governance

Beyond tangible tasks, the project TSC’s main goal should be to make the project successful.

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An ideal TSC should function as a “do-acracy” - all TSC members should be able and willing to give their time, contributions (code or otherwise) and expertise on a regular cadence.

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The TSC should also be actively looking and willing to add additional members that demonstrate these qualities consistently (and have a documented process to do so).

Contribution

Basic Requirements:

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• Adhere to the project’s IP policy as defined in their charter. This can include:
• Signed Contributor License Agreement (Company or Individual)
• Signed GitHub commits (DCO) with valid e-mail address
• Passing CI
• Approved Review(s) (more on this next)

Code Review

• PRs should be reviewed by at least one senior project developer, not including the original author ( OpenSSF Best Practices badge requirement )
• PRs should remain open for at least 48hrs (work days, and ideally more) to allow time for community feedback - even if it has received the requisite approvals
• Original author should make changes requested by reviewers

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Code Review

There are exceptions to every rule:

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• Time-critical patches
• Very minor changes / typo fixes
• Lack of reviews
• Failing CI tests

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Meetings & Notes

• All project meetings should be open to any and all attendees (rare exceptions OK)
• Meetings should be published and accessible via LFX calendar
• TSC meetings should have a regular, predictable cadence
• Notes should be taken and posted to a public place for every TSC meeting
• Options: manual note taking, transcription, recording, or combo
• Suggestion: rotate note-taking duties per meeting to decrease bias and encourage participation

Communication

Project maintainers are responsible for representing & communicating about the project. This includes:

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• Making roadmaps, feature planning, and release cadence open and accessible
• Providing updates as needed to project Slack channels / mailing lists
• Being responsive to issues and questions from the community

TAC Resources

• TAC Website - tac.aswf.io
• Includes much more detailed process descriptions
• ASWF Overview decks & charters:
• https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/foundation
• OpenImageIO’s code review guidelines:
• https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/OpenImageIO/blob/main/docs/dev/CodeReview.md

Academy Software Foundation Governing Board CONFIDENTIAL

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Q&A