[chore] RFC: Collector releases approvers group

docs/rfcs/release-approvers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# OpenTelemetry Collector Releases approvers
+
+## Problem statement
+
+Release engineering requires a different set of skills and interests than developing the Collector
+codebase. As such, the set of contributors for the Collector releases has overlap with but is
+different from the set of contributors for the Collector codebase. We are missing out on retaining
+people who are more interested in these aspects. We can see this with the examples of the
+OpenTelemetry Operator repository and the OpenTelemetry Collector Helm Chart repository; they are
+able to work independently from the other Collector repositories and have been able to create an
+independent community. 
+
+We also have a [growing backlog][1] of issues related to the release process that would benefit from
+a dedicated set of people.
+
+## Overview 
+
+I propose we create a new `collector-releases-approvers` Github team that are [approvers][2] on the
+[opentelemetry-collector-releases][3] repository and code owners for the Builder and release
+workflows. The existing approvers teams will focus on the Collector and Collector components
+codebases. This opens future possibilities for creating a separate WG/SIG for this and further
+improving our release process.
+
+## Team scope and responsibilities
+
+The `collector-releases-approvers` team will be [approvers][2] for the
+opentelemetry-collector-releases repository. They will also be listed as [code owners][4] for the
+release workflows on the opentelemetry-collector and opentelemetry-collector-contrib repositories.
+
+The new team will not acquire any responsibilities related to the release; there will be no changes
+in the release rotation or release duties after this change.
+
+## Initial team members
+
+Initially, all members of the `collector-contrib-approvers` team will be part of the
+`collector-releases-approvers` team. The Collector maintainers will reach out to existing
+contributors to the Collector releases to invite them to join the team.
+
+## Prior art
+
+This introduces an approver group without a maintainer. It also introduces this team as a code owner for files in other repositories. There are prior instances of both of these patterns within the OpenTelemetry project:
+
+1. There are currently two SIGs that have approver teams without corresponding maintainer teams:
+  - The Docs SIG has multiple localization approver teams that have approver duties for the translations of the OpenTelemetry documentation.
+  - The Semantic Conventions SIG has multiple approver teams corresponding to different Working Groups and/or semantic conventions areas.
+2. There are multiple instances of teams being code owners:
+  - [opentelemetry-collector approvers are code owners for `examples/demo` in `opentelemetry-collector-contrib`][5]
+  - [Helm chart and Operator approvers are code owners for the k8s distro in `opentelemetry-collector-releases`][6]
+  - [Go instrumentation approvers are code owners of instrgen in `opentelemetry-go-contrib`][7]
+
+## Future work
+
+If we are able to grow a healthy community around the releases repository, in the future we can
+consider the following:
+
+- Having a dedicated SIG/WG for the opentelemetry-collector-releases repository.
+- Making the `collector-releases-approvers` code owners of the OpenTelemetry Collector Builder.
+- Having dedicated meetings for release retros that allow us to iteratively improve the Collector
+  release process.
+- Splitting off the artifact and container release process to be independent from the source code
+  release from opentelemetry-collector and opentelemetry-collector-contrib.
+
+This proposal does not require us to do any of the above, but they are interesting possibilities for
+the future.
+
+[1]: https://github.com/search?q=org%3Aopen-telemetry+label%3Arelease-retro++&type=issues&state=open
+[2]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/community/blob/main/guides/contributor/membership.md#approver
+[3]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases
+[4]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#membership-roles-and-responsibilities
+[5]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/blob/40fa8b8a925cadf569e785cbc85d6dfca152bde2/.github/CODEOWNERS#L40
+[6]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/blob/3ba7931410d1696d9df7bef424b634a5d64cffbd/.github/CODEOWNERS#L17
+[7]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/blob/c0cc77f10a2dae774161d6a03441b12c0e8b0816/CODEOWNERS#L73