Probably the most complex lifecycle of the lot with 6 phases
Pre-proposal:
* group propose interest in creating a project
* Eclipse Management Organization (EMO) helps setting up the proposal
* ends when proposal gets published
Proposal:
* proposers improve the proposal with the committee and community input
* project gets two mentors coming from the architecture council
* ends when the proposal is mature enough:
* clear and concise description
* well defined scope
* fit with Eclipse
* why Eclipse? (kind of motivation letter)
* resources committed (to avoid being a dumping ground of dead projects)
* vendor neutral
* lot of legal stuff because of Eclipse nature with lot of company owned code
* project gets created in the incubator after a creation review:
* proposal is complete
* committee gave approval
* trademark assignment is complete
* all questions during review answered
* qualitative requirements are addressed: enough devs, clear description, collaborations, time for the community, evidence of activity
Incubation:
* development of the process, community and technology
* pay attention to the IP policy
* APIs quality
* frameworks
* regular milestones
* interim releases
* has roles: contributors, committers, users, adopters
* follow the eclipse ways
* ends with a graduation review:
* PMC approval
* project plan
* IP log approval
* documentation review
Mature:
* considered mature project of the eclipse community
* strong emphasis on quality and predictability
* still go through release reviews for major releases:
* IP is clean
* PMC approval
* project plan is complete and up to date
* documentation is ready (including website...)
* features, APIs, architecture and quality are assessed
* provide a "state of the community report"
* if no release for a year, it goes through a continuation review
* if inactive, it goes through a termination review:
* PMC approval
* document the archival process (which accounts to revoke, data to archive, etc.)
Top-Level:
* promotion from mature for the best projects
* happen after a promotion review
Archived:
* inactive projects going through a termination review end there
* all data archived
* VCS closed
* mailing lists disabled although archives are retained
* only the last download is available on the website
* if community picks it up again it starts over at the project creation phase