Getting Started

What Role Are You?

How you interact with EasyCLA depends on your role. EasyCLA supports the following roles in its workflow:

• Project Manager

• Contributor

• CLA Manager

• CLA Signatory

When a Contributor License Agreement (CCLA) is first implemented, the roles of Contributor, CLA Manager, and CLA Signatory may be held by the same individual or different people. Each contributing company decides which employees will fill these roles.

Understanding these roles is essential to determine who should be designated for each position. Review the following roles to facilitate discussions with your company's management and legal counsel.

Project Manager

A Project Manager is typically a project administrator or maintainer responsible for setting up the project's CLA templates and configuring the corresponding repositories in the EasyCLA Project Console (also called Project Control Center). For more details, see Project Managers.

Contributor

A contributor is typically a developer contributing code to a GitHub or Gerrit project set up on EasyCLA.

The specific workflow a contributor follows depends on two factors:

• Whether the project is hosted on GitHub or Gerrit.

• Whether they are contributing on their behalf or behalf of a company (usually their employer).

After submitting a contribution to GitHub or Gerrit, a contributor who has not yet been authorized under a signed CLA will initially encounter a block. To resolve this issue, they can use the EasyCLA Contributor Console to either:

1. Sign an Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA): If the contributor is submitting personally, they will need to sign an ICLA to authorize their contribution.

2. Identify the Company: If the contributor is submitting on behalf of a company, they need to specify the company. Once identified, they can either:

   • Be automatically authorized under an existing Corporate Contributor License Agreement (CCLA).

   • Initiate the process to sign a new CCLA.

CLA Manager

A CLA manager is an individual authorized by a company to manage the list of authorized contributors and other CLA managers under that company's Corporate Contributor License Agreement (CCLA) for a project.

A CLA Manager uses the EasyCLA Corporate Console to:

• Add Contributors to Approved List

• Add or Delete CLA Managers

When a CCLA is first being set up for signature, it will specify an Initial CLA Manager. This person uses the EasyCLA Corporate Console to coordinate the signing of the CLA (see CLA Signatory below).

After the CCLA is fully signed, the specified Initial CLA manager can use the EasyCLA Corporate Console to manage the list of authorized contributors. They can also designate additional CLA managers.

By default, a CLA manager is not automatically an authorized contributor themselves unless they add themselves to the authorized contributor list.

CLA Signatory

A CLA signatory is an individual authorized by their company to sign a Corporate Contributor License Agreement (CCLA) on its behalf.

• If a company's CLA signatory is the same as their initial CLA manager, it will be redirected to sign the CCLA via the EasyCLA Corporate Console.

• If the CLA signatory is a different person from the initial CLA manager, the CLA signatory will receive an email to review and sign the CCLA.

If you are authorized and receive an email request to sign contracts, then review and sign the project’s CLA on behalf of the company.