The Project Management Committee, or PMC, is the technical steering committee for a project. Each PMC determines the roadmap for their project, decides who will be added as committers and PMC members, votes on new project software releases, and reports quarterly to the Board of Directors.

The Board expects all PMCs to understand and comply with published policies.

PMC Responsibilities

The PMC is responsible for the management of the project. This includes both the technical decisions and ensuring that the project is operating in community-friendly ways. PMCs are also responsible for managing their project’s brand and trademarks.

The PMC is also responsible for voting on releases of their project, to ensure that each release is tested and is an official ASF release artifact.

Read more about PMC responsibilities

Chair

The PMC Chair acts as the voice of the project to the Board, and is responsible for filing a quarterly report. They are not the project leader, but is a peer of the other PMC members who has been selected, for a time, to take the role of secretary and spokesperson.

Read more about the PMC Chair

Voting

While most actions of a project are decided by discussion and consensus, there are situations in which a vote is necessary. You can read more about voting on the ASF main website.

Infrastructure services

The ASF Infrastructure team offers a wide variety of services to your project, which PMC members may request. Familiarize yourself with those services!

Reporting

A PMC is required to file a report to the Board of Directors every quarter, on a schedule determined by the Board. Read more about what goes into a PMC report.

Adding committers

The addition of committers is essential to the long-term sustainability of an open source project. The PMC is responsible for determining who will be added as a committer. Read more about how new committers are added to a project.

Community growth

Growing your project community takes work. But knowing exactly what to do to encourage that growth can be difficult. Read about practical steps you can take to attract new contributors.

Adding PMC members

The PMC members identify project participants whom they want to be members of the PMC. Read more about the process of adding new PMC members.

What to do as a new PMC member

If you’ve just joined the PMC as a new member, there’s a number of things that you’ll need to do to be an effective part of the PMC. Read more about getting started as a new PMC member.