Committees and Delegation Policy

= This Page is an Archive of an old discussion - June 11th 2010 = To efficiently work towards the goal of creating a biological pathway exchange format, the BioPAX workgroup must delegate certain tasks to subgroups (committees). The subgroup would then have the authority to independently complete the assigned task and report back to the group.

Assignment

 * Large tasks to complete BioPAX are listed on a central, organized task page and prioritized by the group.
 * Any task that is deemed by the BioPAX workgroup as assignable, i.e. it would be inefficient to have the whole group work on it, should be assigned to a subgroup.
 * The subgroup requires a volunteer leader who can recruit all other interested parties and a clear definition of the task to be completed. For instance, a subgroup may create a recommendation for gene regulation representation or a meeting agenda.
 * The subgroup then independently completes the task and reports back to the group when convenient at meetings and when complete.

Reporting

 * All significant subgroup activities must be reported to the group via normal forums (e.g. wiki).

Approval

 * Tasks that are defined to require approval upon assignment are commented on during regular reporting at meetings and submitted for approval to the BioPAX workgroup when complete.
 * Not all tasks require approval e.g. ontology definition tasks always require group consensus, but some administration tasks do not, such as creation of a meeting agenda.

Tips for assignment:
 * The task definition should include whether approval is required for the group or not. If not, such as for a maintenance task, there should be a time limit imposed on the task, e.g. 1 year, to allow other interested people the chance to take over maintenance tasks.

Tips for reporting:
 * It is useful to maintain a wiki page for subgroup activities and have most of the communication flow through that page. That way, commication threads are easy for everyone to follow and the reporting of group activities is almost automatic, since the process is open.

Tips for approval:
 * Subgroups work for the BioPAX workgroup, thus comments from non-subgroup members should be considered during subgroup work. This will aid approval and supports the community spirit of BioPAX.

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