Some thoughts on the proposal template which I had volunteered to help edit.
The seeds of a new project proposal has to be vetted in a public forum like hyperledger-technical before creating a project proposal.
It needs a technical champion who believes in the project and who should be the technical lead on the project. The project champion can change in the middle of the project.
The proposal template for HyperLedger Improvement Proposal (HIP):
Author(s) name and contact details including email address, a short name for the project (less than 10 words).
Abstract (less than 50 word) description of the project.
The description and need for this project, substantiated by:
Technical details Effects on
Transactions- including confidentiality, signing, traceability, identity of participants, contracts (scripts)
Effects on User facing Clients that help with transaction formation (similar to Wallets in BTC)
Effects on the network, throughput, visibility to other participants, change in protocol if any, criteria for network participation
Block formation and ledger formation viz. Consensus algorithm, size overhead, effects on the throughput and rate
Cryptographic implications if any.
Backward compatibility (hard fork or updates by all network participants needed?)
Rough design and thought experiment (Gedanken Experiment) on the probable effects, if any
Address any possible objections and also support that came up during seed proposal from technical community on the lists.
Traceablity, testing criteria to gauge effects on installed base.
Any other technical details, including languages used, other technology needed and (preferably) public sources for additional tools and binaries
References and defense of why this is needed, especially if the same ideas have been already addressed in any other project.
Rough gauge of effort and resources committed (coders and any other resources that are needed) and timeline if available.
Readability which means following certain conventions. The style itself could be controlled by Chicago Manual Of Style say, explanation of abbreviations, references, diagrams. A proposal editor appointed from by the tsc could help with this. As technical people we often do not think about this aspect. This is extremely important as the clear statement of the problem and its technical details are helpful to elicit a solution in the community and prompt volunteers. This can be helped by having a proposal builder software or a template itself.
