[IAEP] [ANNOUNCE] Feature Policy updated

[Simon Schampijer]

Dear Sugar community,

the Feature policy [1] has been updated.

* Why this process *
Let me quote the first paragraph to exaplin what this policy is for:

"The main goal of the feature process is to phrase out the ideas on how 
Sugar should evolve that are floating around in the community. These can 
be requests from the field or individual propositions on how to enhance 
the learning platform.

Once the idea is written out in a wiki page (following the process 
described in detail below) and a maintainer is found who will be working 
on this feature, it can be proposed to be part of a Sucrose release 
cycle. The work on that feature will be tracked during the cycle and if 
finished in time it will find it's way in the Sucrose stable release."

* Who can propose a feature *
Basically, anyone can propose a feature following the guidelines in the 
wiki page [2]. This feature can be emerge from a deployment need or a 
teacher request etc. You do not need to be able to build the feature 
yourself. Of course to be making it's way into a release someone needs 
to own the feature and build it. The way to propose a feature to be 
included in the release cycle and how it gets included in a stable 
release is described at [3].

* Backup up by the community *
The proposer of the feature has to get feedback from the community. This 
includes technical feedback, feedback from the deployments etc. See as 
well in the last paragraph about which points the community might care. 
Of course there will be some different opinions in the community - in 
general there should be more YES than NO in the community for a feature 
to be able to get into a Sugar release.

* Design *
What we enforce is the work with the Design Team when proposing a 
feature that includes UI changes or adds a new UI. We want to keep the 
UI consistent and the quality high. As the Sugar environment is mainly 
about the UI and a clear work flow this is very important.

* Things you should consider when proposing a feature *
There are several things you should consider when proposing a feature 
for the Sugar learning platform [4]. How does it impact learning? How 
usable and useful is this feature to a young learners? How well does 
this fit into a classroom environment? [...] These are good guidelines 
to make a Feature a success.


Keep the ideas and implementations coming,
    Simon

PS: If you need an example of someone following the process have a look 
at Aleksey's last mails [5].

[1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy
[2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy#Propose_a_feature
[3] 
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy#Propose_a_feature_for_addition_into_the_release_cycle
[4] 
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy#Things_you_should_consider_when_proposing_a_feature
[5] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2009-November/021031.html