[CNCF Graduation] [Engineering Principles] [Recommended] Clarify Roadmap Change Process in Governance.md

[kfaseela]

As part of the CNCF graduation due diligence review, we are specifically reviewing the Engineering Principles requirement:

Roadmap change process is documented.

In the current DD application (cncf/toc#1538), this points to:

• buildpacks/community/GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap

Problem / What’s confusing today

GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap currently states that the TOC is responsible for establishing a yearly roadmap, but it does not clearly describe the roadmap change process. For external reviewers (including CNCF reviewers) following the DD link to GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap, the documented “change process” is not obvious.

In practice, the roadmap lifecycle appears to be driven through the RFC repository (e.g., roadmap RFCs) and then implemented by updating buildpacks/community/ROADMAP.md via PR, but this end-to-end flow is not summarized in GOVERNANCE.md.

Would be great to add a short mention of this in governance document to show how the roadmap change process is.

[kfaseela]

cc @jkutner @hone

[jkutner]

It's common for process to change over time, which is why there are different formats for historical roadmaps. In fact, the CNCF is asking us to change our process again, which will result in more "fragmentation" over time. But that's normal. I don't understand why there's a concern about historical roadmaps being in different formats or having followed different processes.

[kfaseela]

It's common for process to change over time, which is why there are different formats for historical roadmaps. In fact, the CNCF is asking us to change our process again, which will result in more "fragmentation" over time. But that's normal. I don't understand why there's a concern about historical roadmaps being in different formats or having followed different processes.

cncf/toc#1538 DD says Roadmap change process is documented in buildpacks/community/GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap . That section does not seem to be clarifying what the process is. Could you please clarify the doc on what the process is? If it is via RFC, update the roadmap section to specify that. Definitely not asking to change the process, rather document the existing process

[jkutner]

Yes, I will update that doc. I just don't understand the concern over the historical process changes.

[kfaseela]

Yes, I will update that doc. I just don't understand the concern over the historical process changes.

It was just an additional observation. Because the DD had linked to 2025 roadmap change rfc, but that roadmap is not visible in the historical folder. If you have it, you can populate there for completeness. It is not a MUST to have.