[Tools-discuss] Introducing a new roadmap framework

[Robert Sparks <[e-mail]>]

Earlier this year the roadmap for IETF tools development was withdrawn 
as there were a number of problems with it, including:
   • Projects that spanned multiple quarters were split up into phases 
with no clarity about what work would be in each phase.
   • The projects were a mixture of organizational goals and detailed 
projects.
   • No linkage between the projects and the various work items recorded 
as GitHub issues in individual tool repositories.

A new roadmap framework for IETF Tools Development is ready for comment 
that partly addresses these concerns with a plan to extend it to address 
the remaining over time. The roadmap is populated with the projects that 
are currently ongoing or are expected in 2026. We will hold a call 
towards the end of January to discuss the plan. Feedback between now and 
then is appreciated at [e-mail].

The roadmap is built as a GitHub project “Tools Development Roadmap” [1] 
with an underlying repository of issues that are used to populate this 
roadmap called “roadmap” [2], both in the ietf-tools GitHub 
organization. The project and issue repository are both read-only as it 
is expected that they will be maintained by the tools team as part of 
the new process described below.

The roadmap contains organizational goals and then for each of those a 
list of projects intended to support that goal. Each goal and project 
can be inspected by clicking on its name. The goals and most of the 
projects have more detail in their description already, but all projects 
will have extended descriptions added going forward. The current sizing 
and planned dates, by quarter, for projects are initial estimates, and 
the priority column is not yet populated.

The roadmap has three initial views:

   1. Organizational goals [3].  This lists the high-level goals.
   2. Projects by organizational goal [4].  This is a detailed table of 
each project, grouped by organizational goal, showing the size, 
priority, main user(s), start quarter and target quarter.
   3. Project roadmap [5].  This is a timeline view showing all of the 
projects and their start quarter and target quarter.

The next step with this roadmap is to add new issues (labelled as 
“epic”) in each of the individual tool repositories that link back to 
the project they form part of and then over time, the issues that relate 
to those epics will be linked to those. That will then provide a linkage 
for each issue to the project that aims to address it and the 
organizational goal that supports that work.

Feedback is now sought on this new roadmap, and in particular the 
following questions:

  1. Does this structure meet your requirements for a tools roadmap?
  2. Are these goals and projects at a useful level for understanding 
and influencing the planned tooling projects?
  3. Are these the right goals and projects for 2026?

We aim to hold an open call in late January to discuss the feedback 
received, populate the priority column, and review the planned dates and 
estimated sizing.

Please send feedback before then to [e-mail].

[1]  https://github.com/orgs/ietf-tools/projects/54
[2]  https://github.com/ietf-tools/roadmap
[3]  https://github.com/orgs/ietf-tools/projects/54/views/1
[4]  https://github.com/orgs/ietf-tools/projects/54/views/2
[5]  https://github.com/orgs/ietf-tools/projects/54/views/3