[Initiative]: Public roadmap documentation standards

[angellk]

Name

Public roadmap documentation standards

Short description

Standardize how CNCF projects maintain a persistent, discoverable public roadmap with a documented change process.

Responsible group

TOC

Does the initiative belong to a subproject?

Yes

Subproject name

Project Reviews

Primary contact

TBD

Additional contacts

@angellk (TOC Chair, DD finding source)

Origin

DD finding (automated)

Initiative description

This initiative is a request from the TOC. During due diligence reviews, the TOC evaluates projects against incubation and graduation criteria. When the same finding appears across multiple projects, it signals an ecosystem-wide gap that would be better addressed through standardized guidance than repeated per-project recommendations.

This finding has appeared in 34 of 42 DD reports (81%) scanned over the last 5 years, including #2198 (HAMi), #2057 (Kyverno), #2038 (Microcks), #1754 (Fluid), #1468 (wasmCloud), #1416 (cert-manager), and others. The most recent DD to surface this was HAMi incubation DD (merged 2026-07-02).

Projects routinely have closed roadmap issues, outdated milestones, or no public roadmap at all. Governance docs frequently lack a documented roadmap change process. The TOC recommends a persistent public roadmap but has no standardized guidance for format, location, or freshness expectations.

Scope: Define recommended roadmap format (project board vs in-repo document vs milestone-based), minimum content expectations, change process documentation requirements, and freshness expectations.

Timeline: TBD

Deliverable(s) or exit criteria

• Guidance document: public roadmap standards (format, location, change process, freshness)
• Template: roadmap document or project board configuration
• DD checklist item update — PR to incubation and graduation application templates

Tracking document for meeting and progress

TBD