For each business component, a „component board“ consisting of community members which use the software commercially is established.

Each component board then names a component manager, who leads the development and reports to the board.

He is responsible for gathering and analyzing their requirements and to make estimates of the amount of work related to them. He is also to decide which requirements are suitable for standard software development (and which will not make it as part of the standard component).

After estimating these requirements, he proposes one or more drafts of a release plan for the component.

These release plans are then discussed by the board, made to match a corresponding budget and finally approved.

Working on the approved release plan, the component manager supervises the development work resulting from it. He also plays the role of the quality manager and therefore is responsible for the quality of the deliverables. Finally, he makes the deliverables available to the board members.

Each member of the community using software components to make money with it is called a commercial community member.

Note that this includes insurance companies using the software for business production as well as e.g. consultants or software development companies who offer services around the community components.

Each commercial community member commits himself to a one-year participation in the community process. After that, the member may choose to cancel his membership. If he does, he is still entitled to use the software (free of charge) in the future.

Each community member may decide at any point in time to keep certain development activities off the release plan. This holds for both development efforts by the member himself or by a contractor. These developments are not part of the software standard, but have to be maintained individually.

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