Introduction to JEPs - The Java Enhancement Proposal Process

The JDK advances through JEPs. A JEP, or Java Enhancement Proposal, starts off as a Draft, and eventually into Submitted state for wider review. It gets promoted to Candidate phase if it is accepted for inclusion in the Roadmap by the OpenJDK lead. Even if in Candidate phase, it must move to Funded phase before it can reach the Completed state. JEP2 contains the text format in which a JEP must be written.