Governance in The Turing Way

Governance is a set of formal and informal practices through which an organisation sets goals, assigns responsibilities, establishes systems, and assesses outcomes of organisational action.

The governance body of The Turing Way is represented by the members of the Project Delivery Team, Working Groups and volunteer members from the community involved in defining and leading different initiatives (both funded and informally organised) within The Turing Way.

Like the book itself, the governance of The Turing Way is always a work in progress! We are very keen to discuss and improve our governance approaches with the involvement of our community members.

Three Levels of Decision Making¶

In 2023-2024, The Turing Way adopted three institutional “levels”. Originally described in the context of Studies of the institutional design of natural resource commonsOstrom (2005) and later adopted in the free and open source software (FOSS) communities to describe three broad levels of formal and informal norms that affect decision-makingCharles M Schweik & English (2007).

1. The “Community level" ("Operational-level”) norms influence the everyday decisions and actions made by community members such in participating in the community and contributing to the book.
2. The “Maintenance” level describes different groups of people coming together to work on and promote specific areas and initiatives in the project as well as defining or changing processes to make community level participation easier.
3. At the “Constitutional” level, nominated community leaders from the Maintenance level participate in the Turing Way Steering Committee. The Steering Committee covers decisions at a strategic, whole-project level, such as the establishment of Working Groups, and creating and revising project-related norms that affect the whole of the project, the community and their sustainability.

Each level of decision-making should inform and influence each other, both applying and evolving governance processes in order to build transparent and accountable governance of The Turing Way.

Below, we describe these three levels of decision-making in the context of The Turing Way, inputs for which were invited from open discussions with our community members (follow Miro board for details). This model was presented at a Community Forum in February 2024, a recording of which is shared below.

This is a recording from the first public Community Forum hosted in February 2024.

However in-depth one would like to engage in The Turing Way, we create opportunities for community participation, skill building and pathways to leadership in data science. We discuss these roles and opportunities so that you can identify the best level of engagement for yourself in the project and our community.

We want to ensure that all roles are recognised and valued in The Turing Way. Therefore, from the onset, we have worked to define these different paths for engagement, support and acknowledgement for community members in The Turing Way. You can read the details in our community handbook in the acknowledging contributors chapter.

1. Community Level¶

This level encompasses all members of The Turing Way community, both longstanding and new. Members may have made contributions to the book, participated in an event or simply engaged as book users, social media followers, Slack Workspace members or as independent advocates of The Turing Way.

Decisions and activities undertaken by community level members may include the following:

• Making individual contributions such as creating an issue, fixing a bug, committing a change on existing chapters, and reviewing Pull Requests.
• Joining and inviting new individuals to community meetings such as Collaborations Cafe and Co-working sessions.
• Presenting about The Turing Way at an event.
• Initiating a conversation or posing a question in The Turing Way community channels.
• Suggesting content for The Turing Way Newsletter.
• Applying to participate in the bi-annual Turing Way Book Dashes.
• Proposing an idea for training sessions or community events.
• Proposing a new initiative such as a Working Group.
• Taking any book-related roles in writing, reviewing or maintaining a chapter.
• Translating any part of The Turing Way chapters and resources.
• Establishing a collaboration.
• Helping others with some issues they raise on GitHub or ask on Slack.
• Asking a question or help!
• Other things that you can do as individuals.

We have discussed specific roles under this level in Community and Community Roles.

Guidelines and processes for this level are described in the contribution guidelines and Community Handbook. These processes and resources are co-developed by maintenance level members with the involvement of members from the community and constitution levels as needed.

Maintenance Level¶

This level includes Working Groups and members from the projects within the scope of The Turing Way. You can find details about these members in Governance Roles.

Decision-making at the maintenance level must stay with the community and stewards of the community participating at this level. They are also responsible for making process of participation at the community level transparent for other community members.

Members participating in the constitution-level roles also participate at this level and escalate any decision that affects the broader project and the community functioning, for the constitution-level decision-making.

Project Delivery Team¶

The Turing Way Project Delivery Team are joined by members in funded roles, who take on responsibilities for The Turing Way community and project management.

The Project Delivery Team provide support to the members across all levels of governance and ensures that the decision-making process is kept transparent and where possible, involves the rest of the community.

The Turing Way Working Groups¶

Within The Turing Way, Working Groups (or WGs) are formed by small groups of people who work together on specific topics, themes, or types of work identified by community members as areas of interest.

At the time of writing this chapter, the following WGs have been established and are being led by community members in various roles:

• Translation and Localisation WG
• Infrastructure WG
• Accessibility WG
• Book Dash WG

Decisions at this level¶

Decisions at the maintainer level may include the following:

• Setting up, leading or representing a WG in different types of roles as leads, co-leads, secretaries and contributing members.
• Facilitating the creation of a new WG
• Decisions for planning and hosting the WG meetings and recurrence of the meetings.
• Organising and distributing the responsibilities within each WG.
• Proposing which conferences to participate in or apply to represent their work in The Turing Way.
• Proposing funding ideas/proposals or responding to a call for applications to support their work in The Turing Way.
• Suggesting changes in ongoing processes or current working models through discussions.
• Organising a Fireside Chat Series in conversation with the Project Delivery Team.
• Clarifying unclear processes that guide the work of a WGs.
• Escalating issues that can not be addressed at the maintainer level.

3. Constitutional Level¶

Governance at this level encompasses strategic decisions and significant project changes, including project goals, governance processes, funding, recruitment and shared leadership.

Until November 2024, constitutional-level decision-making rested with the project leads, Kirstie Whitaker and Malvika Sharan. Since December 2024, the Project Delivery Team, led by Malvika, has been supporting the formalisation of constitutional-level governance by establishing a Steering Committee.

Steering Committee members provide advice and ensure accountability for community- and maintenance-level efforts. Decisions at the constitutional level may include the following, but are not limited to:

• Providing leadership and strategic directions in the project.
• Applying for core funding, recruiting staff and allocating budget.
• Building clarity around resources available for the maintainers and community members.
• Proposing directions for the community.
• Process whereby the chair/representatives of the WGs can represent community and WG interests at this level of decision-making.
• Designing additional community representation roles such as through an Advisory Group.
• Support WGs in developing process documentation for their decision-making process, and identifying resources they need to continue their work.
• Meeting other project and community-wide obligations and communicating them transparently to the community.

This document is in its early stages and will evolve in conversation with the community. Find the roadmap for The Turing Way constitution-level Steering Committee in issue #4014, and join the conversation.

Membership in the Steering Committee¶

This committee is comprised of the 1) chairs of Working Groups, and 2) leads of Delivery Groups of projects in The Turing Way, both with defined goals and deliverables.

Working Group chairs or Delivery Group leads may also appoint another member from their group or team to represent their work within the committee. The aim is to ensure consistent representation in the Steering Committee by a stable group of individuals who can provide continuity in knowledge and leadership, contributing effectively to the committee’s shared objectives.

The Turing Way Project Delivery Groups¶

The Turing Way collaborates with various projects and initiatives, whose participants form its Delivery Groups. While these projects may have distinct goals, funding, host organisation, leadership, and timelines, they fall within The Turing Way’s scope.

To ensure accountability and alignment with the overall project and community interests, Delivery Group representatives join The Turing Way’s Steering Committee.

At the time of writing this chapter, the following Delivery Groups are working in collaboration with The Turing Way:

• The Turing Way Practitioners Hub
• Software Sustainability Institute Fellows Projects
• JupyterHub - The Turing Way Project
• Data Science Without Borders

Find details in the Governance Roles.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Steering Committee¶

As part of maintenance-level Working Groups or Delivery Groups, committee members are responsible for escalating project- and community-wide decisions to the constitutional level and participating in the decision-making processes.

As part of the constitution-level Steering Committee, they are responsible for actively engaging community members by transparently sharing discussions and outcomes from the constitutional level. They solicit feedback on decisions (such as, via GitHub issues and newsletters) and approve changes that improve project and community functioning.

Documentation on governance including the roles and responsibilities of the Steering Committee will be reviewed and approved by the inaugural Steering Committee in 2025.

Community Forums¶

Starting in 2024, the project delivery team host open/public community events called ‘Community Forums’ to discuss governance-related matters with our community members and anyone who is interested in understanding the community and project management aspects of The Turing Way. Modelled off a political town hall event, these online sessions are an opportunity to better understand activities across the project and how decisions are made. Our aim is to leverage the expertise across our community, and we explicitly invite you to review our processes and recommend improvements.

Please join Community Forums to stay up to date with the development.

• Recordings from all Community Forums have been published on our YouTube channel.
• You can find out about our next Community Forums in the monthly newsletters.

Join us in building this community together!