[DNSOP] draft-ietf-dnsop-zoneversion, draft-ietf-dnsop-qdcount-is-one progress…

[Warren Kumari <[e-mail]>]

Hi there, authors and WG.

I recently wrote up a summary of the process for authors who are new to the
IETF.
While doing so, I realized that it might be useful to share this even with
experienced authors as well (and also WGs) , so here is a (very) brief
overview of the process:

After the WG chairs declare consensus and complete the document shepherd
writeup, they request publication and the document enters the AD (my) queue.

I then perform my "AD Review" —  this involves reviewing the document,
checking the document shepherd writeup and also doing a ballot writeup. I
will likely have a bunch of editorial comments and nits during the AD
review; addressing these before the IETF LC and IESG eval helps the
document more through the process more smoothly. Apart from just being
polite to the reader, if someone has a hard time reading a document (or
find lots of nits) they get irritated and grumpy towards the document :-)

After comments (if any) are addressed, I request IETF Last Call. Assuming
there is consensus, after comments (if any) have been addressed,  I
progress the document to IESG Evaluation.

*** This is where draft-ietf-dnsop-qdcount-is-one and
draft-ietf-dnsop-zoneversion
are now ***

This is where the entire IESG reviews the document, paying special
attention to conflicts with their area, etc. Note that you will get
comments during this evaluation; ADs review the document carefully, and
will likely have some questions, but also, because they are reviewing
carefully, you will likely get a bunch of editorial type comments and
suggestions.

This is also where you may get DISCUSS ballots on the document — these used
to be concerning to authors, and so I wrote a blog post to help explain how
to deal with them:
https://www.ietf.org/blog/handling-iesg-ballot-positions/ (and
a slightly more formal rewrite:
https://www.ietf.org/about/groups/iesg/statements/handling-ballot-positions/ ).
The key takeaway is that, even though DISCUSSes *are* blocking positions,
and you have to address them, they are called 'DISCUSS' for a reason - they
are intended to result in a DISCUSSion with the discussing AD.

Once the DISCUSS positions and comments are addressed, the document is then
sent to the RFC Editor for final editing (grammar, spelling, etc). At this
point all listed authors are required to approve publication (this is
called AUTH48), and then it finally becomes an RFC.

I'm mentioning all of this because there is still a fair bit of process
that needs to happen; much of this is on the AD (me), but there is still
some work for the authors, and it will still take some time. I wanted to
help explain the process and also set expectations.

If you'd like more info on how the process works, etc, here are some
(hopefully helpful) resources:
1: Scott Bradner’s “IETF: Publishing an RFC” -
https://youtu.be/j3Toe4P9Pa8?list=PLC86T-6ZTP5hXPJ-n4mwJbZ0BHaNlhTMA . This
is part of Scott's "Newcomers" series (
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC86T-6ZTP5hXPJ-n4mwJbZ0BHaNlhTMA)

2: The IETF Process - an informal guide:
https://www.ietf.org/standards/process/informal/

3: The Tao of the IETF: https://www.ietf.org/about/participate/tao/

4: A convoluted state diagram:
https://static.ietf.org/dt/12.11.0/ietf/images/iesg-draft-state-diagram.png

I'm also (of course) happy to answer any questions, etc.,

W