Documentation Stewardship Group

Describe the structure of the group responsible for CAS software documentation.

Draft Version

The following draft policy document is a work in progress.

Responsibilities

The CAS Documentation Stewardship Group is responsible for all aspects of CAS server and client documentation including the following:

  • Developing and maintaining organizational and content standards.
  • Collaborating with developers and user base to provide complete and current documentation for common configuration and deployment scenarios.
  • Collaborating with developers to provide development documentation such as protocol specifications, high-level software APIs, and core software components to facilitate integration and customization.
  • Ensuring that version-specific documentation is current and clearly indicated.
  • Performing regular content review to ensure completeness, accuracy, currency, and conformity with standards and organizational strategy.

Stewardship Group Roles

It is important to emphasize that the following roles are not primarily concerned with content production. The CAS project has historically benefited from contributions from various sources, both closely and loosely affiliated with the project. We anticipate to continue in this fashion going forward, so the roles of documentation stewardship are principally concerned with organization and editing the contributions provided by the community. Due to this relationship and the nature of CAS project documentation, editing would be principally concerned with adherence to standards and review of technical facts.

Documentation Coordinator

Role Summary: Editor in Chief of Documentation

The Documentation Coordinator (DC) is the lead editor responsible for organizational strategy, content standards, and content quality (accuracy, currency, completeness) across all project documentation. The DC is not directly responsible for content (although if technically skilled, he or she could certainly contribute directly), but instead reviews existing and candidate documentation for quality, conformity to standards, and determines how to integrate contributions into the organizational system. The DC is expected to collaborate with other group members in the development of organizational and content standards.

Developer Liaison

Role Summary: Documentation Technical Lead

The Developer Liaison (DL) is responsible for assisting the DC with technical matters related to documentation. The DL performs technical content reviews, or is responsible for delegating content reviews to other developers as needed, at the request of the DC. The DL is also responsible for producing or delegating the production of development documentation that is deemed necessary by the DC.

Documentation Steward

Role Summary: Delegated Editor of Content Area

The Documentation Stewardship Group may have numerous Documentation Stewards (DS) to which the DC may delegate his duties for a smaller content domain. The DS solicits and edits contributions from the community as necessary to develop a comprehensive body of documentation for the delegated content domain. For example, the phpCAS lead developer may volunteer as DS of the phpCAS documentation section, taking direct responsibility for organization, completeness, and content standards for that area. Documentation Stewards should work closely with the DC, taking care to following global organizational and content standards developed by the DC for the entire body of documentation.

Appointments

The CAS Steering Committee will identify and recruit candidates for Documentation Coordinator and Developer Liaison. In cases where there are multiple willing and capable candidates, the Steering Committee will vote to appoint these roles. The DC and DL will serve in the roles as long as they are willing and capable of performing their duties. It is the responsibility of the DC to identify and recruit Documentation Stewards for content subdomains in order to ensure complete coverage for the entire body of documentation.