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I really love the way open source projects use RFC as a tool to get feedback and ideas from the wider community. I've been especially noticing this over the years with the way Ember have been doing their development.

I'm thinking about RFCs in the context of 'closed source' projects. The kind a consultancy or a software house would do for their clients. Are there elements that we can take from this concept and use it in projects that don't have such a big community to draw from? Has anyone done something like this before? Is it feasible?

Thoughts?

Update

Do you think there's an opportunity for developers to create something similar to an RFC process for features they are going to implement and how they are going to implement it? Kind of an early feedback loop. Or do you think it will be too much overhead?

reggaemahn
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2 Answers2

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Good consultancies & software houses as part of the requirements capture will often have several rounds of User Consultation and may well also try to get the actual users, as opposed to the project managers & purchasing officers, involved in specification feedback, prototype evaluations, etc. they just don't call the process RFC.

Steve Barnes
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The Request For Comment process is a general process for developing a specification and while its most obvious use is within the IETF and other non-profit, standards organizations, there is no reason why it can't be used by any other organization.

There are certain cultural factors that go along with the RFC process the primary one being documenting and discussing and shaping the specification as a work in progress in a transparent and consensual manner. This approach works well with standards organizations that are composed of representatives of multiple organizations all of who are attempting to shape the standard towards their ends yet who are also working to create a standard that is useful and acceptable. So there is very much a political component to the process.

The two most important facilities for this approach would be (1) a shared repository with a revision tracking mechanism so that all parties can review the document as well as its history and (2) a discussion tracking mechanism so that action items, action item resolutions, meeting minutes, discussions, comments, notes, and decisions can be tracked and audited and reviewed.

Problems with the RFC process is that it can be laborious and slow though the slowness is in part due to the part time nature of the participants. It is the work of a committee with all of the issues and problems that can arise from committee work as well as all of the greatness that can come from diversity of participant backgrounds.

Richard Chambers
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