SOP - PCP process
Standard Operational Procedure - Parameter Committee Process
This page is written on behalf of the Parameters Committee, the information contained is subject to change and amendment by the committee chairs at any time and should be used at your own risk
August 2023
Document owner and author: MBO - Joaquín López (Secretary)
Document Version Control
IR
Initial Release
May 15, 2023
V.001
Revised version (Joaquín López & Cristina Echeverry)
June 30, 2023
V.002
Revised version (Alex Moser)
August 31, 2023
1. Purpose of this document
This document describes the parameter committee process for meeting and give recommendations in the best interest of the Cardano network. The process also includes the template document were the committee recommendations are requested in a formal numbered document.
2. Parameter Committee Structure
2.1 Roles and Responsibilities
Chairs: Chair: Kevin Hammond Vice- chair: Alex Moser Vice- chair: Vijay Bhuvangiri
Advisory Group Heads: Network group: Neil Davies Economic group: Samuel Leathers Technical group: Markus Gufler
Advisory Group Members: Network group: Karl Knutsson, Matthias Sieber, Marcin Szamotulski Technical group: Ruslan Dudin, Michael Peyton Jones Economic group: Sergio Sanchez, Philip Lazos, Giovanni Gargiulo
Other: Communications: Tommy Kammerer, Nathaniel Acton, Addie Girouard, Matthew Capps Domain experts: Martin Lang, Andrew Westberg Secretary: Joaquín López
2.2 Remit
The purpose of the Parameter Committee is to provide technical advice and recommendations relating to the updatable protocol parameters, taking into account economic, security, network and other considerations, as appropriate.
3. Description of the process - Administrative Activities
1
Secretary
Meetings are held every 3 weeks on Thursdays
To coordinate the agenda and set up the meeting cadence along with the Chair and vice chairs of the committee
To update the agenda in the calendar invite
2
Secretary
Take meeting notes and reach consensus
3
Secretary
Post meeting notes in the Cardano forum
4
Secretary
Set up communication channels:
Actual discord channel on the IO technical
4.1
Secretary
Request approval to the members in order to post their names on the forum (GDPR)
5
Secretary
Use voting tools such as google forms
6
Secretary
Create and post different notes along with the communications team:
Blogpost about the committee and advisory groups
Parameters reference guide
7
Secretary
Update Charter deck:
This deck has all the structure of the committee, roles and responsibilities and a history of all the meeting agendas as well as link to the meeting notes
4. SOP - Parameter Committee Process
4.0 PCP submission
0.1
Any Community member
Proposer starts a new discussion on Cardano Forum as a dedicated thread in specific area under Governance, not PC updates - eg Parameter Change Proposals
0.2
Any Community member
Proposer uploads draft PCP to thread with unique reference determined by them - eg PCP_Parameter_ProposerName
0.3
Any Community member
OPTIONAL: depending on the proposal, proposer polls SPOs (or other groups) on the change to gauge level of support
0.4
Any Community member
Following discussion/editing, proposer uploads revised PCP to thread, including link to disucssion
0.5
Any Community member
Proposer submits PCP request to Parameter Committee by notifying PC secretary
0.6
PC Secretary
PC recommendation links to original discussion and assigns final PCP number
0.7
PC Secretary
Thread is closed
4.1 Input funnel & Topic Selection
1.1
Any Community Member
Completes the PCP form template
Filtering (by chairs/heads) may become necessary at some point when influx of PCPs is high or their quality is poor
1.2
Secretary
Announces the existence of a new PCP to the committee Chairs and ask to add them in the agenda for next meeting
1.3
Chair, vice-chairs and Advisory Group Heads
Vote to accept PCP in meeting: accept/decline/PCP needs adjustments
Decline: e.g. topic is not valuable or time is not right, resp. another PCP is preferred. The committee should not keep a backlog. Good PCPs that get declined are resubmitted.
Needs adjustments: example case: "This is the wrong question" . Meaning the PCP topic is valuable, but the questions need a different formulation.
Approve: Move to 4.
4.2 Topic Discussion with working groups
2.1
Committee Members
Collective decision on mode of working: parallel/serial
2.1.1
Committee Members
Parallel :
Parallel: "All other teams" contains all members of the Parameter Committee. Everyone has the right for input through the invitation for deliberation in the committee meeting. At a later point, this may even be public.
2.1.2
Committee Members
Sequential:
Serial: e.g. when a parameter has non-obvious functional limitations in networking, it may be required to address a PCP sequentially and determine boundaries to avoid unnecessary research in other domains.
2.2
Committee Members
Reach a result in each involved advisory group
4.3 Final discussion & output
3.1
Chair, Vice-chair and AG Heads
Review the different recommendation results and reach consensus:
This happens in a private, closed meeting for efficiency and sensitivity issues
3.2
All Committee Members
Presentation of PCP recommendation
3.3
All Committee Members
Invitation for deliberations on final recommendation
3.4
Committee Members
Reach consensus on PCP recommendation
3.5
Committee Memebers
Committee recommendation, advice, result is reached.
3.6
Communications
Communicate final recommendation on Cardano Forum
5. PCP Standard Form - Parameter Committee Proposal
This form is used to initiate discussions in the parameter committee, an advisory group consisting of experts in the fields of Network, Technical and Economic principles and Cardano protocol parameters. Approved PCPs contain a clear description of the topic and questions formulated neutrally, enabling the committee to give a recommendation.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G7jEKef0n1-LU5LCuc5CJzQJIM6fRKygYBY88b-X-Hk/edit
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