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Release: CX-Io (preview)

Organizational Structure

While Catena-X and Eclipse Tractus-X are formally separate organizations, they are deeply interconnected through individuals contributing to both. This structural overlap can sometimes lead to confusion, particularly regarding roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this page is to clarify these distinctions.

Catena-X Automotive Network e.V​

The Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. is often referred to as 'the association'. It is important to understand that the association consists of five bodies with different tasks and responsibilities. The association bodies are:

The Association promotes, sponsors, and coordinates the overlying requirements of the Eclipse Tractus-X Project.

Committees and Expert Groups are mapped to products or use cases. They are advertised, selected, and established on the basis of a requirement. The application phases are similar and the distributors are always the Catena-X members.

Roles and Responsibilities within the Association​

  • Association Member: This is the basic role that every employee in the of an Association Member can obtain. Being a member grants access to Associations meetings and fundamental tooling necessary for participation, such as viewing content, participating in discussions, or accessing standard resources. The role must be requested actively.
  • Other roles: An Association Member can acquire additional roles by joining one of the Association's bodies. The rights associated with these roles are granted in addition to those already held as an Association Member.

Escalation path​

If an issue cannot be resolved by the designated Association body, it must be escalated to the appropriate higher authority. The escalation pathway is as follows:

  1. Expert Groups: Issues should initially be addressed within the Expert Groups. If the Expert Group Members are unable to find a solution, a vote may be conducted to reach a decision. Should the vote fail to achieve a majority or if an Expert Group member raises substantial concerns regarding the outcome, the issue may be escalated.
  2. Responsible Committee: If the Expert Groups are unable to resolve the issue, it is escalated to the responsible committee. This committee is tasked with oversight and decision-making based on broader organizational perspectives.
  3. Board Sponsors: Should the committee find the issue beyond its scope of resolution, the matter is escalated to the Board Sponsors. These senior members of the board provide strategic guidance and authoritative decisions on escalated matters.
  4. Mediation Board Member: As the final level of escalation, unresolved issues are directed to a Mediation Board Member. This individual is empowered to mediate and resolve high-level disputes or complex issues that could not be settled at prior levels.

Eclipse Tractus-X​

  • Tractus-X is structured along products (repos) or use cases
  • Each contributor can propose features in sig-release
  • Committers make the decision which features will be committed in the next release

Roles and Responsibilities within Tractus-X​

  • Contributor: Contributors are the backbone of any open source project. They are individuals who offer their skills and time to contribute to the project in various forms, such as code, documentation, design, or community support.

  • Committer: Committers are contributors who have been granted the ability to directly access the project's code repository to make changes. They have a deeper level of commitment to the project and are responsible for reviewing and accepting contributions from others.

  • Project Lead: An Eclipse Project Lead is a project committer with extended rights and responibilities. Every project can have more then one project lead, they are elected by the project committers.

Collaboration Between Catena-X and Eclipse Tractus-X​

Collaboration

Even if it appears to be an organisational separation, it is important to understand that Catena-X and Tractus-X must work closely together. The Expert Groups and Committees are the ones who define the features and the roadmap. The committers are the ones who implement the features and the roadmap. The experts are the ones who provide the knowledge and the expertise to the committers.

The committers are responsible for the prioritization of the features within the open-source boards. committers are also responsible for overarching topics like quality, security, and functionality. Committers are representatives of their own company and should also work/support within the Expert Groups.