| --- |
| title: Decision-Making |
| --- |
| |
| The most important thing about engaging with any Apache project is that everyone |
| is equal. All project participants with an opinion can express that opinion and, where |
| appropriate, have the community consider it. |
| |
| To some, the idea of having to establish consensus in a large and distributed team |
| sounds inefficient and frustrating. Don't despair, though: The Apache Way has a |
| set of simple processes to ensure things proceed at a good pace. |
| |
| In ASF projects we don't like to vote. We reserve that for the few things that need |
| official approval for legal or process reasons (e.g. approving a release or adding a new committer). |
| Most of the time we work with the consensus-building techniques documented below. |
| |
| ## Lazy Consensus |
| |
| [Lazy consensus][10] is the first, and possibly the most important, consensus-building |
| tool we have. Essentially lazy consensus means that you don't need to get explicit |
| approval to proceed, but you need to be prepared to listen if someone objects. |
| |
| ## Consensus Building |
| |
| Sometimes lazy consensus is not appropriate. In such cases it is necessary to |
| make a proposal to the mailing list and discuss options. There are mechanisms |
| for quickly showing your support or otherwise for a proposal and |
| [building consensus][11] within the community. |
| |
| Once there is consensus to approve a proposal, people can proceed with the work under the [lazy |
| consensus][12] model. |
| |
| ## Voting |
| |
| Occasionally a "feel" for consensus is not enough. Sometimes we need to |
| have a measurable vote, as when we [voted][13] in new committers or |
| approve a release. |
| |
| [10]: /committers/lazyConsensus.html |
| [11]: /committers/consensusBuilding.html |
| [12]: /committers/lazyConsensus.html |
| [13]: /committers/voting.html |
