Hi Carlos,

See responses inline with [mj].

> On Jul 13, 2025, at 3:00 PM, Carlos Pignataro <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Alvaro, Mahesh, Team,
> 
> Please find some follow-ups inline, marked with “[CMP]”.
> 
> Carlos Pignataro (He/Him)
> Founder and Principal
> Blue Fern Consulting <https://bluefern.consulting/>
> Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> 
> From: Mahesh Jethanandani <[email protected]>
> Date: Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 2:57 AM
> To: Alvaro Retana <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]>, 
> [email protected] <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [OPSAWG]Initial Shepherd Review of draft-opsarea-rfc5706bis-03
> 
> [Speaking as a contributor]
> 
> Hi Alvaro,
> 
> First of all, thanks for your shepherd review. I have additional comments, 
> which I will provide separately. For now, I just want to piggyback on some of 
> your comments.
> 
> On Jul 11, 2025, at 3:02 PM, Alvaro Retana <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Dear authors:
> 
> First of all, thanks for taking on this work!
> 
> [CMP] Thanks to you, Alvaro, for your thorough, useful review!
> 
> I started reading the document, but before getting into the substantive 
> sections (4 and 5), I want to initiate a conversation on a couple of points 
> where the draft could be clearer and provide better guidance.  Some of these 
> points require a wider discussion.
> 
> 
> (1) When is the Operational Considerations section required?
> 
>    The document "introduces a requirement to include an "Operational 
>    Considerations" section in new IETF Standard Track RFCs."  Section §3.1 
>    (Operational Considerations Section) is more descriptive:
> 
>       All Internet-Drafts that are advanced for publication as Standards
>       Track IETF RFC are required to include an "Operational
>       Considerations" section.  It is recommended that Internet-Drafts
>       advanced for publication as Experimental protocol specifications also
>       include such sections.  "Operational Considerations" sections will
>       also often be appropriate in Internet-Drafts advanced for publication
>       as Informational RFCs, for example, in protocol architecture and
>       protocol requirements documents.
> 
> 
>    Documents of any status can define New Protocols or Protocol Extensions, 
> so 
>    it is not clear to me why only documents on the Standards Track are 
>    required to include an "Operational Considerations" section.  The 
>    document's status doesn't eliminate the need to consider how New Protocols 
>    or Protocol Extensions will fit into the network or be managed.
> 
> Agree that operational (and management) considerations should not be limited 
> to Standards Track documents. More on it below.
> 
> [CMP] Ack. We will update.
> 
>    Also, does "often be appropriate in...Informational RFCs" mean that 
>    including the "Operational Considerations" section is optional, or that 
>    there may be cases where it is required?
> 
>    IMO, the "Operational Considerations" section should be required in all 
>    RFCs.  §3.2 (Null Operations and Manageability Considerations Section) 
>    offers text to be used in cases where it is truly determined that no 
>    "Operational Considerations" are needed.
> 
> I would agree. I think we should remove this statement, and generalize that 
> all non-PS documents are recommended to carry an operational (and management) 
> considerations section.
> 
> [CMP] Agree as well.
> 
> 
> (2) rfc2119 keywords
> 
>    §2 (Key Concepts, Terminology, and Technological Landscape) says:
> 
>       This document does not describe interoperability requirements.  As
>       such, it does not use the capitalized keywords defined in [BCP14].
> 
>    I agree with not using rfc2119 keywords when talking about the 
>    considerations themselves.  However, they should be used when defining the 
>    specific requirements for when the Operational Considerations section is 
>    needed (see above) to avoid confusion.
> 
> 
> (3) Null Considerations section not required?
> 
>    §3.2 (Null Operations and Manageability Considerations Section) says that 
>    "[i]f there are no new manageability or deployment considerations, it is 
>    recommended that an "Operations and Manageability Considerations" section 
>    contain a simple statement..."
> 
>    Populating a null section is not required.  Does this mean that an RFC can 
>    be published without Operational Considerations?  Even in the Standards 
>    Track?  
> 
> Hmm. That is now how I am reading this. If anything it says that a simple 
> statement saying "There are no new operations or manageability requirements 
> introduced by this document,” should be added. That in my mind is not a null 
> section. It goes on to say that an explanation for why no new considerations 
> are being introduced. 
> 
> [CMP] I think the nuance here is that we (authors) mean "null 
> considerations", whereas Alvaro wrote a “null section”. We do not want a null 
> section. We provide text for a non-null section describing null 
> considerations. Does that clarify? 
[mj] Ack, and yes, “null considerations” is better than “null section”.
> 
> 
> (4) What is the name of the new section?  Is it one section or two?
> 
>    The title of §3.2, for example, calls out what appears to be one section 
>    ("Operations and Manageability Considerations Section"), but they are 
>    mentioned independently in other places.  And still in other cases, only 
>    the Operational Considerations section is mentioned (in §3.1, for 
> example).  
>    Is the intent that one section covers both topics?  If so, please be clear 
>    and consistent about it.
> 
>    Also, most of the document talks about "manageability considerations", but 
>    a couple of places use "management considerations".  The same for 
>    "operations" and "operational".
> 
> The section should be called “Operational and Management Considerations” to 
> make clear that both operational and managment considerations are being 
> discussed in the section. The section is often referred to as “Operational 
> Considerations”, but that does not make it clear that both operations and 
> management issues are being discussed. And as the document itself clarifies, 
> operational considerations != management considerations.
> 
> [CMP] This is a bit tricky… 
> [CMP] “Management” is a noun, with associated adjective as “Managerial”.
> [CMP] While I always wrote "Operational and Management Considerations”, and I 
> think this is the most widely used variation, I feel this might benefit from 
> some thinking. 
> [CMP] The title of the document is "Considering Operations and Management”. 
> [CMP] Are there implications of non-modifying-noun versus adj-modifying-noun 
> constructs?
> [CMP] “Operational and Management Considerations"
> [CMP] “Operational and Managerial Considerations"
> [CMP] “Operations and Management Considerations"
> [CMP] I’d say that ‘manageability’ is not an option here as it’s a subset of 
> management of the how manageable but not the act of managing.
[mj] Thanks for laying out all the options. My vote is still with “Operational 
and Management Considerations”.

Cheers.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Carlos.
> 
> (5) Scope creep?
> 
>    §1.2 (Audience) mentions several potential uses of this document beyond 
>    documenting the operational and manageability considerations for New 
>    Protocols or Protocol Extensions, for example: "Area Director who is in 
> the 
>    process of creating a new WG Charter...OPS Directorate can use this 
>    document to guide performing reviews".  But there is no guidance on how 
> ADs 
>    should use the document when chartering.  A reference is provided to the 
>    the document.
> 
> The chairs of OPSDIR are coming up with a template to guide reviewers of the 
> directorate, and I expect them to derive that template from this document. In 
> that sense, the scope is redundant.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> 
>    [May be related to 
> https://github.com/IETF-OPSAWG-WG/draft-opsarea-rfc5706bis/issues/65 
> <https://github.com/IETF-OPSAWG-WG/draft-opsarea-rfc5706bis/issues/65>]
> 
> 
> 
> I included below a couple of nits.
> 
> Thanks!!
> 
> Alvaro.
> 
> 
> [Line numbers from idnits.]
> 
> ...
> 309    *  Data Model: A set of mechanisms for representing, organizing,
> 310       storing and handling data within a particular type of data store
> 311       or repository.  This usually comprises a collection of data
> 312       structures such as lists, tables, relations, etc., a collection of
> 313       operations that can be applied to the structures such as
> 314       retrieval, update, summation, etc., and a collection of integrity
> 315       rules that define the legal states (set of values) or changes of
> 316       state (operations on values).  A Data Model may be derived by
> 317       mapping the contents of an Information Model or may be developed
> 318       ab initio.  Further discussion of Data Models can be found in
> 319       [RFC3444], Section 5.1, and Section 5.2.
> 
> [] s/found in [RFC3444], Section 5.1, and Section 5.2./found in Section 5.1, 
> Section 5.2 and [RFC3444].
> 
> I first read this as pointing at Sections 5.1 and 5.2 of rfc3444, which don't 
> exist.
> 
> 
> 
> ...
> 452    After a Protocol Designer has considered the manageability
> 453    requirements of a New Protocol or Protocol Extension, they may
> 454    determine that no management functionality or operational best-
> 455    practice clarifications are needed.  It would be helpful to
> 456    reviewers, those who may update or write extensions to the protocol
> 457    in the future, or to those deploying the protocol, to know the
> 458    rationale regarding the decisions on manageability of the protocol at
> 459    the time of its design.
> 
> [] "management functionality or operational best-practice clarifications"
> 
> Not all operational considerations are best practices (and the term may get 
> confused with a BCP).
> 
> s/.../manageability or operational considerations
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> Mahesh Jethanandani
> [email protected]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


Mahesh Jethanandani
[email protected]






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