What is the PUNIC network?

The PUNIC network is a group of professional Python companies and developers in the Netherlands. The network stems from the Python Usergroup Netherlands (PUN) and Django Meeting NL groups.

The goals of the PUNIC network

The network consists of employees using Python within a larger company, developers within small businesses that depend on Python and independent developers.

Python developers within the network document their projects and the details around those projects. If a Python developer becomes unable to continue his/her work the PUNIC network is notified. The network document of the developer allows the PUNIC network to quickly determine which projects can be taken over by which developer or company, notify the necessary contacts and proceed to continue where the developer left off.

Why start such a network?

The PUNIC network was started to support the efforts of the small Python community in the Netherlands. Although Python has increased in popularity over the last decade it is still not easy to find an adequate replacement for a Python developer. Formal and informal arrangements were made but increasingly PUN members wanted to address this issue as a group.

PUNIC project levels

The following levels have been defined within the network:

A higher level requires a larger amount of documentation and more frequent updates. A level 2 developer must make sure that his/her projects are transferable within one work-day. A level 1 developer must make sure that his/her projects are transferable within 3 work-days. A level 0 developer must make sure that his/her projects are transferable within 5 work-days.

For now we'll only go for level 0 projects+documentation: it's harder than you might think.

Incidents

At the occurrence of an incident all developers of the level involved and each level below it are sent the network document. If a developer is interested in taking over the project (short- or long-term) the developer lets the network know (first-come first-serve). The developer then contacts the project client.

If the project client declines the developer the project is once again sent to the PUNIC developers.

Note that the PUNIC network isn't an insurance: it is a formal blanket approach from the participating Python developers to those they develop for. It is possible that a project can't be taken over in spite of multiple attempts. In this case the project client will have to look outside the PUNIC network.

Documentation

Mandatory up-to-date documentation:

-> allow another developer to decide if he/she can take over your project within a reasonable time-frame (eg. 1 week).

More documentation is better, but a single page from last Tuesday trumps a project plan from 5 years ago that hasn't been changed.

Document your warts!

Tentative (voorlopige) members

Where do we go from here?

Notes from PUNIC talk 13-04-2011

PUNIC (last edited 2011-04-14 11:20:03 by 82-171-161-1)

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