[CNCF Graduation] [Engineering Principles] Clarify Roadmap Change Process in Governance.md

[kfaseela]

As part of the CNCF graduation due diligence review, we are specifically reviewing the Engineering Principles requirement:

Roadmap change process is documented.

In the current DD application (cncf/toc#1538), this points to:

• buildpacks/community/GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap

Problem / What’s confusing today

GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap currently states that the TOC is responsible for establishing a yearly roadmap, but it does not clearly describe the roadmap change process. For external reviewers (including CNCF reviewers) following the DD link to GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap, the documented “change process” is not obvious.

In practice, the roadmap lifecycle appears to be driven through the RFC repository (e.g., roadmap RFCs) and then implemented by updating buildpacks/community/ROADMAP.md via PR, but this end-to-end flow is not summarized in GOVERNANCE.md.

Proposed enhancement

Please update buildpacks/community/GOVERNANCE.md (ideally the ## Roadmap section, and/or cross-linking from ## RFC Process) to explicitly document the roadmap change process at a high level, including:

1. Where the public roadmap is published (link to ROADMAP.md).
2. How roadmap changes are proposed (e.g., via a roadmap RFC PR in buildpacks/rfcs).
3. How roadmap changes are approved (reference the RFC approval/voting process, if that is the intended governance path).
4. How the published roadmap is updated (e.g., after acceptance, open a PR to buildpacks/community replacing/updating ROADMAP.md).
5. (Optional but helpful) Cadence / scope (annual vs half-yearly) and whether cadence is policy vs. current practice.

The goal is that a reviewer landing on GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap can quickly understand how the roadmap is changed and where to participate.

Additional Inputs & Observations on Roadmap Documentation

There is significant lack of clarity across the documentation regarding project roadmaps. Several sources reference different versions or locations:

• The roadmap up to 2023 appears to be found at roadmaps/.
• The current 2026 roadmap is published as ROADMAP.md.
• Have no clarity where 2024 and 2025 roadmaps are
• The README.md#roadmap section also refers to roadmap content, but links are inconsistent and not always up-to-date.

This fragmented structure makes it hard for contributors or reviewers to locate all roadmap documents (historical and current) and to understand the evolution and change process. Would be nice to consolidate the fragmented structure a bit.

[kfaseela]

cc @jkutner @hone

[jkutner]

It's common for process to change over time, which is why there are different formats for historical roadmaps. In fact, the CNCF is asking us to change our process again, which will result in more "fragmentation" over time. But that's normal. I don't understand why there's a concern about historical roadmaps being in different formats or having followed different processes.

[kfaseela]

It's common for process to change over time, which is why there are different formats for historical roadmaps. In fact, the CNCF is asking us to change our process again, which will result in more "fragmentation" over time. But that's normal. I don't understand why there's a concern about historical roadmaps being in different formats or having followed different processes.

cncf/toc#1538 DD says Roadmap change process is documented in buildpacks/community/GOVERNANCE.md#roadmap . That section does not seem to be clarifying what the process is. Could you please clarify the doc on what the process is? If it is via RFC, update the roadmap section to specify that. Definitely not asking to change the process, rather document the existing process

[jkutner]

Yes, I will update that doc. I just don't understand the concern over the historical process changes.

[kfaseela]

Yes, I will update that doc. I just don't understand the concern over the historical process changes.

It was just an additional observation. Because the DD had linked to 2025 roadmap change rfc, but that roadmap is not visible in the historical folder. If you have it, you can populate there for completeness. It is not a MUST to have.