Working groups
The Geant4 Collaboration is organized into the following 16 Working Groups, each responsible for a specific area of the project. These groups are structured according to their main responsibilities and approximately reflect the categories, sub-domains, and activities identified within the collaboration:
- Advanced Examples
- Documentation Management
- Electromagnetic Physics Processes
- Geometry and Transport
- Hadronic Physics Processes
- Generic Processes and Materials
- Novice and Extended Examples
- Particles and Tracking
- Persistency
- Physics Lists and Validation Tools
- Physics Validation
- Run, Event and Detector Responses
- Software Management
- Testing and Quality Assurance
- User and Category Interfaces
- Visualisation
The Geant4 members contribute to one or more of these Working Groups, according to their expertise and interest.
At the beginning of each year, a census is conducted within each Working Group to record members’ contributions from the previous year and their pledged efforts and proposed work plan for the coming year. The latter is then used to prepare the overall Geant4 plan of work of the year, which is presented and discussed with users in a dedicated Geant4 Technical Forum, usually held in the first quarter. The total committed effort of each Working Group (calculated as the sum of its members’ contributions, without a minimum threshold or auditing mechanism) determines the number of representatives the Working Group will have in the Geant4 Steering Board.
The coordinator and deputy coordinator (and eventual other representatives at the Steering Board) of each Working Group are elected every two years, with one vote for each Geant4 collaborator and member of a Working Group. Candidates receiving the highest number of votes are then formally approved and appointed by the Steering Board. The rationale behind this procedure is to ensure that both technical and physics-related choices concerning Geant4 are taken by active developers who are trusted by a majority of their colleagues.
The main duties of each Working Group coordinator are the following:
- Carry out the census of the Working Group at the beginning of the year.
- Prepare the annual plan of work for the Working Group.
- Monitor progress throughout the year in the implementation of the plan of work.
- Organize regular meetings of the Working Group, as well as relevant special meetings or dedicated workshops between developers and, when necessary, with users.
- Follow issues, problems, bugs, and new requirements under the responsibility of the Working Group.
Task Forces
A Task Force, along with its members, can be established by the Steering Board to carry out a specific high-priority task for Geant4, typically involving multiple Working Groups.
The chair of a Task Force is appointed by the Steering Board.
Most Task Forces have a limited duration and a fixed goal, such as the one formed to bring multithreading capability to Geant4. Others are permanent, such as the one focused on R&D simulation activities.