[3.11] Profile governance & lifecycle #11

Aspect

Section: 3.11 Profile governance and lifecycle
Orientation relevance: both

Objective

Decide how profiles are authored, reviewed, published, versioned, and retired, so adopters can
rely on their stability.

Background & links

Scoping document §3.11. Versioning and status coordinate with identity/metadata (3.2). The
WG's own process (see CONTRIBUTING.md) is a candidate model to mirror for profile authoring.

Options under consideration

• Lightweight — owner + lazy-consensus review, mirroring the WG's own working process.
  (Trade-off: low friction; relies on engaged owners.)
• Formal — a defined review/approval gate per published profile. (Trade-off: stronger
  assurance; heavier.)

Open questions

• The authoring and review process for a new profile (who proposes, who reviews, what evidence).
• Change-management rules: revisions, signalling breaking changes, deprecation and supersession.
• How published profiles are made discoverable, and the minimum maintenance commitment of a profile owner.

Dependencies

Coordinates with identity/versioning (3.2 #5). Otherwise largely independent.

Decision

Not yet decided.

Impact on the specification

Spec section "Profile governance and lifecycle."