FinOps Foundation Working Groups (WGs) are small, cross-functional groups of people producing best practices for a specific FinOps capability or challenge. They operate in 6-8 week sprints and have their content published by the FinOps Foundation to contribute towards building the FinOps community, advancing FinOps practitioners in their practice, and establishing FinOps best practices and standards.
Working groups proceed through a three-phase lifecycle. First, is idea incubation when working group ideas are evaluated. Next, is the active phase during which it runs through the planned sprints. Lastly, when their purpose is achieved working groups graduate and close.
Yes! Any member of the FinOps Foundation community can submit an idea for a WG.
The Working Groups Overview page at finops.org displays a list of current Working Groups. If your idea is not already listed, then look for the button to “Submit an idea” near the top of the page.
Ideas will be reviewed by FinOps Foundation staff and TAC for a decision on whether or not to proceed with the working group. If needed, staff will follow up with you for more information. Decisions on new WG ideas are typically completed on a quarterly basis.
If your idea is selected, then you will be notified of the decision.
A Working Group is made up of:
| Role | Description |
| WG Lead | A FinOps community constituent who is a practitioner (up to a max of 3 practitioners) who is familiar with the subject matter and is willing and able to lead the WG. This individual is expected to perform the following duties but may delegate tasks to other contributors as needed.
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| WG Contributors | A individual who is a part of the FinOps Foundation community who is interested in the subject matter and is willing and able to participate in the WG. These individual are expected to perform the all of following duties:
For individuals unable to attend regularly scheduled WG meetings, you can contribute by staying in regular contact with the WG lead/staff sponsor on WG progress throughout the duration of the project and create WG content or offering valuable feedback on created content Non-member participation is limited as outlined on GitHub. Working groups must maintain a minimum of 6 community contributors (a minimum of 5 contributors if there are two or more working group leads) with a balance of at least 50% practitioners. |
| FinOps Foundation Staff Sponsor | A FinOps Foundation staff member assigned to the working group and responsible for:
Staff sponsor has the power to close the WG if deemed nonproductive. |
| TAC Liaison | A voting member of the TAC which performs the following duties:
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This role must be held and performed by an active FinOps Practitioner a part of the FinOps Foundation community (up to a max of 3 members). The WG Practitioner Lead(s) organize and lead the WG aligned to the scope and sprint timeline in order to produce the artifacts/resources described by their WG Proposal. This role is expected to chair the WG meetings, set the meeting agenda, capture meeting minutes and track/follow-up on actions captured/resolved. F2 practitioner members can volunteer to be a WG Practitioner Lead, or a practitioner may be nominated to the role by (i) the TAC Liaison and/or (ii) the WG members.
The WG Proposal template is intended to be a relatively short abstract of your idea and the corresponding deliverables the WG is planning to produce for the F2 community. The current version of the template can be viewed here.
During your WG sprint, contributors will…
To participate in FinOps Foundation working groups you must be a part of the FinOps Foundation community. Please reference community access criteria for more information.
You can request to join a working group by clicking the Apply to Join button(s) found on the Working Group Overview page. When filling out this form it is important to submit the email address associated with your FinOps community membership as only FinOps community members are eligible to participate in working groups. For more information on working group participation see community access criteria.
Working groups only accept new members prior to the start of or between sprints. Requests to join a working group which are received mid-sprint will be considered on a case-by-case basis and retained for consideration when the working group is accepting new joiners again.
Working group graduation is the closure of a working group. At which time the group celebrates its successes, and the following activities occur to mark closure: