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 four-phase lifecycle. First, is idea incubation when a community member submits an idea for a working group. Next, is the proposal phase to further define the working group purpose and plan of action. Once approved, the working group is considered active while it runs through the planned sprints. Lastly, when their purpose is achieved working groups graduate and close.
Yes! Any member of the F2 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 F2 staff for a decision on whether or not to proceed with further developing a proposal for the working group. If needed, F2 staff will follow up with you for more information. Decisions on new WG ideas are typically completed within three weeks from the submission date. Note WG proposals are still subject to approval by the TAC prior to starting WG sprints.
If your idea is selected, then you will:
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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F2 community members who are practitioners are eligible to lead working groups. If eligible, the individual(s) who submitted the working group idea are asked if they are willing to lead the working group. Otherwise, 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, F2 Staff Sponsor and/or (ii) the WG members. This role may be held by a max 3 members practitioner members.
This role must be held and performed by an active F2 FinOps Practitioner member (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.
The fun part begins! The WG can start tackling the proposed topic and work towards creating a resource for the F2 community. Ideally, you’ll meet weekly to stay in sync as a team while working to complete tasks for the current sprint. Along the way, the WG will provide updates on progress to the TAC and the F2 community at Summits.
During your WG sprint, contributors will…
To participate in FinOps Foundation working groups you must be a part of the FinOps Foundation community. To ensure quality participation, members and practitioners are limited to participating in two simultaneous working groups. Non-members are limited to participating in one working group at a time. Please reference community access criteria for more information.
To join a working group fill out the Working Group Interest – Join Request form. 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 during the proposal pending phase or at the start of a new sprint. Requests to join a working group mid-sprint will be considered by the staff sponsor and working group lead.
Not all working groups are open to the public. Exclusive working groups do not accept new joiners to the WG after the proposal pending phase. Exclusive working groups may be invite only or SME only.
Completion of the Working Group Interest – Join Request form will kick off our internal processes to add you to the working group meetings and the dedicated WG Slack channel if you are not already on each.
At the end of each sprint working groups will take a 1-2 week break before proceeding on to the next sprint. When a WG has completed all approved sprints they will consider if additional sprints are necessary. If yes, the WG goes back to revise the proposal and re-submits for acceptance. If additional sprints are not necessary you may pat yourself on the back for a job well done!
When all sprints are complete F2 staff will ensure: