20

Introduction

who notices the problem to bring it to their attention. With the recent rapid

growth of the development group, this system became inadequate for dealing

with the problems brought on by that rapid growth. This need has created

multiple small teams within the larger structure, whose specific task has some

narrowly focused agenda. Some of the current agendas include: Publicity;

Documentation; Quality Assurance; and Testing.

These subgroups operate on the same general principles as the larger group,

usually with their own mailing list and a team leader. These teams have a

far better chance of coming to closure on the issues that they deal with, than

the larger group was ever able to accomplish. Within this loose structure, the

driving forces come from the universal desire of all participants to create an

exceptional product of the highest possible quality. This helps to quell personal

agendas and keep people focused on the general goals. It is this development

model, borrowed from the Kernel Development Team and modified to suit the

needs of the Debian team, that has allowed Debian to become the powerful

distribution that it is today.