1 <!-- 2 Copyright 2010 The Android Open Source Project 3 4 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 5 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 6 You may obtain a copy of the License at 7 8 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 9 10 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 11 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 12 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 13 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 14 limitations under the License. 15 --> 16 17 # People and Roles # 18 19 The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) includes individuals working in a variety 20 of roles. As noted in [Our Philosophy](philosophy.html), Google is responsible for Android product management 21 and the engineering process for the core framework and platform; however, 22 the project considers contributions from any source, not just Google. This 23 page describes the kinds of roles that interested parties can take on. 24 25 Anyone who is interested in exploring and contributing to Android can use the 26 Android Open Source Project resources. Anyone can join the mailing lists, ask 27 questions, contribute patches, report bugs, look at submitted patches, and use 28 the tools. To get started with the Android code, see [Get Involved](/source/index.html). 29 30 ## Contributor ## 31 32 A "Contributor" is anyone making contributions to the AOSP source code, 33 including both employees of Google or other companies, as well as external 34 developers who are contributing to Android on their own behalf. There is no 35 distinction between Contributors who are employed by Google, and those who are 36 not: all engineers use the same tools (git, repo, and gerrit), 37 follow the same code review process, and are subject 38 to the same requirements on code style and so on. 39 40 ## Developer ## 41 42 A "Developer" is an engineer writing applications that run on Android 43 devices. There is, of course, no difference in skillset between a "Developer" 44 and a "Contributor", but AOSP uses "Developer" to distinguish between 45 engineers using the platform and those contributing to it. Developers are 46 (along with end users) the "customers" of the platform that the Contributors 47 create. As such, we talk about Developers a lot, though this isn't technically 48 a separate role in the AOSP per se. 49 50 ## Verifier ## 51 52 "Verifiers" are responsible for testing change requests. After individuals 53 have submitted a significant amount of high-quality code to the project, the 54 Project Leads might invite them to become Verifiers. *Note: at this 55 time, generally Verifiers are the same as Approvers.* 56 57 ## Approver ## 58 59 "Approvers" are experienced members of the project who have demonstrated their 60 design skills and have made significant technical contributions to the 61 project. In the code-review process, an Approver decides whether to include or 62 exclude a change. Project Leads (who are typically employed by Google) choose 63 the Approvers, sometimes promoting to this position Verifiers who have 64 demonstrated their expertise within a specific project. 65 66 ## Project Leads ## 67 68 Android consists of a number of sub-projects; you can see these in the git 69 repository, as individual .git files. Tech Leads are senior Contributors who 70 oversee the engineering for individual Android projects. Typically these tech 71 leads will be Google employees. A Project Lead for an individual project is 72 responsible for the following: 73 74 - Lead all technical aspects of the project; for example, the project roadmap, 75 development, release cycles, versioning, and QA. 76 77 - Ensure that the project is QA-ed in time for scheduled Android platform 78 releases. 79 80 - Designate Verifiers and Approvers for submitted patches. 81 82 - Be fair and unbiased while reviewing changes. Accept or reject patches 83 based on technical merit and alignment with the Android strategy. 84 85 - Review changes in a timely manner and make best efforts to communicate 86 when changes are not accepted. 87 88 - Optionally maintain a web site for the project for information and 89 documents specific to the project. 90 91 - Act as a facilitator in resolving technical conflicts. 92 93 - Be a public face for the project and the go-to person for questions 94 related to the project. 95 96
