[DDI-SRG] info on revision types and timelines

[Wendy Thomas]

Below are the details of Minor and Major revisions. We should be able to 
make a wide range of minor changes with Mary's approval and no public 
review. More complex minor revisions (such as editing of CodeScheme 
discussion currently in Mantis) is still minor but should probably have a 
public review...this still keeps it in a month turnaround so a 2-3 month 
minor revision schedule is definately not out of line. It gives us 1-2 
months to address bugs and present a solution, have a 2 week review and 
vote. Mary would always have the option of moving all or parts to 
immediate acceptance.

Note that there was nothing sacred about the 3 or fewer changes noted 
below...we just thought that more than this could be a problem. I think we 
need to expand the concept of minor to provide some context of change as 
opposed to a numeric cutoff. These were written prior to the development 
of 3.0 so we may wish to review this document.

wendy

*****
MINOR revisions include:
.	Bug Fix (its an error)
.	Expanding a controlled vocabulary . This now only applies to 
internal controlled vocabularies as others are published external to DDI
.	Adding or removing 3 or fewer attributes for an existing element 
(remove means change of required to optional
.	Adding or removing 3 or fewer elements within a current complex 
element

All others are MAJOR Revisions

MINOR change TIMELINE for Approval
Week 1: Review by Expert Committee Chair and TIC
Week 2-3: Public Review
Week 4: Vote

For some minor changes, the Director has the discretion to implement the 
change immediately after Technical Review if recommended by TIC. In past 
discussions this has been interpreted to include bug changes, 
documentation changes, and controlled vocabularies. We may want to expand 
the concept of .MINOR. to include complex elements that are expanding 
current features (adding detail or flexibility) that are backward 
compatible. These should be subject to public review and not be part of 
those that can be passed by Director.

MAJOR revision TIMELINE

Month 1: Trial Review and Call for Objections
Month 2-3: Technical Review
Month 4: Vote on passing to Public Review and Proof of Concept stage
Month 5-6: Public Review and Proof of Concept
Month 7: Vote by Expert Committee and Final Approval by Director

******


Wendy L. Thomas                          Phone: +1 612.624.4389
Data Access Core Director		 Fax:   +1 612.626.8375
Minnesota Population Center              Email: wlt at pop.umn.edu
University of Minnesota
50 Willey Hall
225 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455