Dear team, Reflecting back upon the last 18 months, the chairs feel that we as a group can do better to make it easier to track and discuss ideas in a structurered way. Therefore, we propose a process/vehicle which we call "Numbered Work Items (NWI)". The goal of this proces is to make it simpler to learn the current status of a proposal, and in which court the ball lays. kickstart: To kickstart the proces, any db-wg participant can email the chairs with a snippet of text (a rough problem statement) and formally ask the chairs to make it a work item. The chairs then can say "yes" and assign a number, or "no". If a number was assigned, the work item will be routed through three phases. phase 1: problem definition In this phase as group we'll work on formulating an exact problem definition: text goes back and forth in the working group, example cases of the problem are provided. In a 2 or 3 weeks timeframe the chairs declare consensus on the problem statement of NWI. phase 1 output: clearly defined problem statement, or a conclusion we cannot agree upon a problem statement definition. If the latter is true, the NWI cannot proceed to phase 2. phase 2: solution definition solution finding: people can propose solutions to a work item's problem statement. Solutions can come from RIPE NCC staff, or any working group member. RIPE NCC may offer an implementation analysis on proposed solutions or aspects of solutions. For the NWI to move to phase 3, RIPE NCC has to provide the group with a summary of their understanding of the solution, and the chairs declare consensus on the group's acceptance of this summary. phase 3: development & deployment phase RIPE NCC writes the code, sets timelines what happens when, documents the transitions/migration plan if applicable. finish: when the change has been deployed in the production environment. Every month, someone will email the group with an overview of all open Work Items, a brief summary of the NWI, the phase they are in and possibly in who's court the ball is and the next action. Kind regards, Job