Dear All,
I don't mean to chime in here, but if we can agree that nobody is asking
ADs to be only process mavens, and nobody is asking ADs to refrain from
making technical contributions, we could probably make some progress.
I've worked for plenty of managers with technical skills. Some were
coinventors on patent applications. We still did a budget every year,
and we still had a plan with milestones that we worked to meet. Whatever
else the Manager of an IETF Area does, they need to at least manage the
working groups in that area - that's how I read 2026/2418.
Spencer, who is NOT planning to propose a terminology change to call
them "Pointy-Haired Area Directors"...
Dave Crocker wrote:
HOWEVER, it does seem that you seem to believe that the _primary_
responsibility of an AD is as a project manager and a process
manager/cop.
Yes...
RFC 2026, The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3:
14. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
...
Area Director - The manager of an IETF Area. The Area Directors
along with the IETF Chair comprise the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG).
Hmmm. Manager.
And the label is used alone. No other descriptive word is used.
Nothing about technical contribution.
RFC 2418, IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures:
6.7. Area Director
Area Directors are responsible for ensuring that working groups in
their area produce coherent, coordinated, architecturally consistent
and timely output as a contribution to the overall results of the
IETF.
"Coherent, coordinated and timely" are explicitly management tasks.
As i noted about Steve Bellovin's AAA reference, there is a strong
component of "architecturally consistent" that also is management,
when the task is done properly in the way he described.
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