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DRAFT – FOR REVIEW
This content is subject to review by the IPMC and the project community. This material was developed by individuals outside the individual podling communities, who may view events differently than those directly involved. Some content was AI-generated and may contain errors; however, the material has been reviewed and verified by a human for accuracy. It is provided for training and discussion purposes and may contain minor simplifications or adjustments for clarity.

The Apache Incubator has hosted over 200 podlings since its inception in 2002. Each community followed its own path, yet common patterns appear: how projects grow, communicate, govern, and eventually graduate or retire. These case studies collect that experience so mentors, PPMC members, and ASF participants can recognise familiar situations and learn from earlier examples.

The goal is not to evaluate or rank projects, but to preserve and share practical lessons about how incubation works in practice.

Each case study focuses on a recurring aspect of incubation, supported by examples drawn from verified ASF reports and public mailing list discussions. Together, they form a record of how ASF values, openness, consensus, independence, and diversity emerge in real project life.

Overview of the Five Case Study Areas

Case Study Area	What It Explores	Example Projects (historical)
1. Community Growth and Diversity	How small or company-originated teams became open, multi-organisation communities through transparent communication and shared decision-making.	Pinot, Superset, Airflow, ECharts, APISIX
2. Corporate Origins and Independence	How projects with strong corporate roots adapted to ASF governance and built vendor-neutral, community-led decision processes.	Iceberg, Kafka, Cassandra, Pulsar, Airflow
3. Complex or Extended Incubation	How technically large or long-running podlings maintained engagement and transparency through migration, IP clearance, or major refactoring.	NetBeans, IoTDB, Trafodion
4. Lifecycle and Transition	How projects approached graduation, withdrawal, or retirement openly and responsibly, treating each outcome as part of healthy project life.	MXNet, Mesos, Wave, Blur, Zipkin
5. Global and Cross-Language Collaboration	How geographically distributed or multilingual communities built inclusive participation while maintaining ASF’s transparency norms.	ECharts, IoTDB, Kylin, APISIX

How to Use These Case Studies

Mentors can use them to recognise familiar patterns, anticipate challenges, and guide discussions with their podlings.
PPMC members can compare their community’s progress to past examples and identify areas to strengthen.
IPMC members can reference them when reviewing reports or graduation readiness, ensuring oversight remains consistent and constructive.

Each case study includes:

brief context and purpose
3–5 verified examples drawn from ASF history
discussion points and “reference actions” for mentors and PPMCs
neutral summaries that show how ASF values appear in practice

A Shared Record of Experience

This case study summarises information from ASF public mailing lists, podling reports, and status pages. It was written from the perspective of observers outside the individual podling communities. Community members may hold differing views on events or timelines, and minor simplifications may be made for clarity or training purposes. It includes historical information drawn from public ASF sources and does not represent the current state of any project mentioned. This content may contain errors or omissions due to AI-generated elements. However, the material has been reviewed and verified by a human for accuracy. These factors do not reduce its value as a reference for understanding patterns of incubation and global collaboration.