Internet Engineering Task Force A. Farrel
Internet-Draft Juniper Networks
Intended status: Informational February 14, 2017
Expires: August 18, 2017
A Definition of the Term "Soon" for Use in Discussions with Working
Group Chairs and Area Directors
draft-farrel-soon-00
Abstract
Many discussions with IETF Area Directors and Working Group Chairs
utilize the word "soon" to qualify a commitment to action. This
document attempts to provide a definition of that term so that common
expectations may be realistically set.
Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on August 18, 2017.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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publication of this document. Please review these documents
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. We Are All Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. The Kompella Time-Dilation Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Possible Interpretation of the Term 'Soon' . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Optimism Is the Curse of the Drinking Man . . . . . . . . . . 3
6. Towards A Definitive Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7. Guidance in the Use of This Term . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. Boilerplate for Inclusion in All Communications . . . . . . . 5
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
10.1. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
11. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
In everyday exchanges between IETF participants and those with IETF
management roles (for example, Area Directors and Working Group
Chairs) commitments are often made to deliver actions.
For example, a Working Group Chair may say "I will issue a working
group last call on this document," or an Area Director could say "I
will process your publication request and review your document."
Alternatively, a document author might say "I will produce a new
revision of this document," and a participant sometimes says "I will
provide more details / suggested text / a follow-up review."
In all of these interactions it is common for the speaker to offer
some expected completion time for the action. Sometimes this is
expressed in elapsed time (for example, "I will do this within the
next two lunar cycles"), frequently it is stated with reference to an
absolute point in time (such as, "I will do this by the third Sunday
in Lent"), but usually the qualifier applied is "Soon."
Frustration and disappointment are common currency in the modern
world, but there is no need for the IETF to add to this state of
affairs. Nor should the IETF be responsible for increasing cynicism
and jaundiced pessimism. Therefore, this document attempts to
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provide a definition of the term "Soon" so that common expectations
may be realistically set.
2. We Are All Volunteers
It is a commonly held belief that in the IETF "we are all
volunteers." Even those of us who are paid to do our jobs are
confident that we are only working out of the goodness of our hearts
and that our salaries are poor recompense for our daily travails.
And, of course, it is well known that you cannot induce a volunteer
to do anything that might interfere with their otherwise compulsory
activities of looking at pictures of cats, creating memes, or pipe-
smoking. Therefore, it is highly inappropriate for this document to
make any attempt to constrain anyone into giving a meaningful
delivery date for any action that they promise. To that end it is
expected that this document will be withdrawn and a fulsome apology
issued soon.
3. The Kompella Time-Dilation Effect
When serving as co-chair of the CCAMP working Group, Kireeti Kompella
was often called to account for not offering a completion date for
tasks to which he committed.
After wise consideration of this situation, Kireeti would offer an
answer such as "I will do this before the end of June," and everyone
would go away content. It was only as July gave way to August that
Kireeti would explain that he had failed to indicate to which year he
was referring.
In such cases of high residual KTDE, use of the term "Soon" would
better set expectation, and Kireeti has given an undertaking to
transition to this term by the end of the second quarter.
4. Possible Interpretation of the Term 'Soon'
Many learned articles have been written on possible interpretation of
the term "Soon". No doubt the author will add citations and
references one day soon.
5. Optimism Is the Curse of the Drinking Man
The software industry is infamous for its inability to provide
reliable estimates for development projects. No-one is quite sure
why this should be. Is it because troops of evil mice come into the
workshop late at night while the cobbler is asleep in his bed
alongside his long-suffering wife and unpick the seams of carefully
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constructed function calls? Is it because coders make it all up as
they go along and have no idea what they are doing? And is it a
coincidence that sotware is so appropriately spelled?
IETF working group milestones are commonly held in disrepute. They
are certainly not dates that anyone had ever been held to, and
inspection of most working group charters will show that either the
chairs intend employing time travel or that no one pays any attention
to the milestones. It may be because Area Directors often say to
working group chairs that "milestones are just a tool for you to
manage the working group", or it may be because no one likes a bully.
These two factors obviously contribute to an environment in which the
term "soon" has little or no currency except as padding to fill an
awkward gap between a promise and the full stop at the end of the
sentence.
None of which is intended to imply that:
o Women don't drink
o Women are less optimistic than men
o Women are less more optimistic than men
6. Towards A Definitive Meaning
The purpose of this document is to provide a working definition of
the term "soon" so that parsers of IETF communications may reasonably
understand the meaning and so that a degree of linguistic
interoperability between speakers may be achieved. The following
definition applies:
SOON This word, or the adjective "SHORTLY", mean that an item is
truly optional. One IETF participant may choose to deliver the
item because a particular marketplace requires it or because the
participant feels that it enhances their reputation while another
participant may omit to deliver the same item. A participant who
does not deliver a particular item MUST be prepared to continue to
work with with another participant who does deliver the item,
though perhaps with reduced credulity. In the same vein, a
participant who does deliver a particular item MUST be prepared to
continue to work with another participant who does not include the
item, though perhaps with less respect (except, of course, for
communications about the feature the item provides).
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7. Guidance in the Use of This Term
Terms of the type defined in this memo must be used with care and
sparingly. In particular, they MUST only be used where it is
actually required for explanation of when a deliverable will arrive
or to limit behavior which has potential for causing harm (e.g.,
limiting retransmissions of requests for action). For example, they
MUST NOT be used to try to impose a particular schedule on
participants where the schedule is not required for anything other
than vanity.
8. Boilerplate for Inclusion in All Communications
In many IETF communications a word is often used to signify the
proximity of an event described in the communication. This word is
often capitalized. This document defines this word as it should be
interpreted in IETF communications. Authors who follow these
guidelines should incorporate this phrase near the beginning of their
communication:
The key word "SOON" in this communication is to be interpreted as
described in [This.I-D].
9. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request for any IANA actions.
10. Security Considerations
Just say no!
Further security consideration will be added to this document SOON.
10.1. Privacy Considerations
See "Author's Address" Section.
11. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
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Author's Address
Adrian Farrel
Juniper Networks
Email: afarrel@juniper.net
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