Article 11 | Mid-Process Review Milestone

(1) Purpose and Dual-Track Approach: This Article establishes a streamlined review milestone to evaluate progress, eliminate operational bottlenecks, and maintain agile momentum across OpenBharat.net Working Groups (OWGs). To prevent bureaucratic drag, this milestone distinguishes between:

• Direct Standardisation Tracks: Structured deliverables intended to produce formal open specifications, canonical benchmarks, or regulatory standards; and

• Ecosystem and Exploratory Tracks: Non-standard deliverables, including foundational research memos, empirical diffusion pilots, open codebases, developer tooling, hardware testbeds, and policy sandboxes.

(2) Timing and Trigger: The mid-process review is an agile checkpoint rather than a rigid procedural barrier. It may be initiated:

• For Direct Standardisation Tracks, at approximately the midpoint of the timeline established under Article 5; or

• For Ecosystem and Exploratory Tracks, flexibly upon reaching a functional code milestone, completion of an initial empirical sprint, or at the joint discretion of the presiding Convenors and the OBGC.

(3) Milestone Objectives: The review aims to:

• Assess tangible output (such as codebase stability, benchmark empirical viability, or draft normative text);

• Identify and clear architectural, compute, or legal roadblocks early without halting parallel work;

• Ensure pragmatic synthesis of technical contributor feedback and empirical findings; and

• Verify contextual alignment with the technical, commercial, legal, and ethical imperatives set out in Schedule 1 of this Charter.

(4) Streamlined Review Modality: The review shall be conducted via routine sprint sessions or virtual working reviews presided over by the track Convenors. Participants may:

• Triage open repository issues, technical pull requests, or drafting comments;

• Decide whether an exploratory track has matured sufficiently to spin off into a formal standardisation track under Article 5;

• Resolve any licensing or upstream dependency conflicts pursuant to Article 6; and

• Recalibrate sprint delivery targets where experimental conditions or compute limitations warrant flexibility.

(5) Milestone Briefing and Documentation:

• To eliminate excessive reporting burdens, the requirement for a formal mid-process review report is satisfied by a concise Milestone Briefing or committed Sprint Summary Memo prepared by the track Convenor and transmitted to the OBGC.

• The briefing may briefly summarize:

  • Key technical progress and operational readiness of the deliverable;

  • Critical dependencies, compute bottlenecks, or statutory considerations requiring council support; and

  • Recommended sprint targets, revised release timelines, or immediate next steps.

• Once noted by the OBGC, the briefing shall be logged in the track repository, ensuring transparent alignment across participating Academic Members and ecosystem contributors without disrupting development workflows.