[Re]launching DEPs

[Jacob Kaplan-Moss]

Hi folks -

tldr: there's a new DEP 1 (https://github.com/django/deps/blob/master/final/0001-dep-process.rst), read it if you think you might want to submit a DEP. The biggest change is a clear articulation of exactly how the process works. Read on for background and more details.

About six months ago we originally launched the DEP (Django Enhancement Proposal) process as a way of trying to focus discussion around larger changes to Django. The process mostly languished, however: there was unclear ownership, confusion around what was required to get a DEP discussed and approved, and an unclear process. A few weeks ago at Django Under The Hood a large group of core team members met to discuss these issues and figure out how to move the DEP process itself forward.

We've completed that work, and you can read the results as the new DEP 1: https://github.com/django/deps/blob/master/final/0001-dep-process.rst. The major changes w/r/t to the previous version of DEP 1 are much more detail about format, requirements, and roles. Note in particular that we're explicitly asking DEP authors to now identify some key roles before a DEP can even get considered: DEPs will require an author (obviously), some idea of who's offering to actually implement the proposed changes, and buy-in from a core committer who's willing to shepherd the process along. Over the history of Django, very little has happened without people filling these roles, so we've made them explicit in the DEP process so that it's clear what's required to make big changes happen.

If you're familiar with the Python PEP process, this is going to look very familiar. PEPs work, so wherever possible we avoided reinventing the wheel, and mostly took the process wholesale (you can read the delta between PEPs and DEPs at the end of DEP 1).

Happy DEPing!

Jacob