A Debian package must comply with the precise rules compiled in the Debian policy, and each package maintainer must know them. There is no requirement to know them by heart, but rather to know they exist and to refer to them whenever a choice presents a non-trivial alternative. Every Debian maintainer has made mistakes by not knowing about a rule, but this is not a huge problem as soon as the error is fixed when a user reports it as a bug report, which tends to happen fairly soon thanks to advanced users.

Debian is not a simple collection of individual packages. Everyone's packaging work is part of a collective project; being a Debian developer involves knowing how the Debian project operates as a whole. Every developer will, sooner or later, interact with others. The Debian Developer's Reference (in the developers-reference package) summarizes what every developer must know in order to interact as smoothly as possible with the various teams within the project, and to take the best possible advantages of the available resources. This document also enumerates a number of duties a developer is expected to fulfill.

Many tools help package maintainers in their work. This section describes them quickly, but does not give the full details, since they all have comprehensive documentation on their own.

All candidates are expected to have at least a working knowledge of the English language. This is required at all levels: for the initial communications with the examiner, of course, but also later, since English is the preferred language for most of the documentation; also, package users will be communicating in English when reporting bugs, and they will expect replies in English.

The other prerequisite deals with motivation. Becoming a Debian developer is a process that only makes sense if the candidate knows that their interest in Debian will last for many months. The acceptance process itself may last for several months, and Debian needs developers for the long haul; each package needs permanent maintenance, and not just an initial upload.

The first (real) step consists in finding a sponsor or advocate; this means an official developer willing to state that they believe that accepting X would be a good thing for Debian. This usually implies that the candidate has already been active within the community, and that their work has been appreciated. If the candidate is shy and their work is not publicly touted, they can try to convince a Debian developer to advocate them by showing their work in a private way.

At the same time, the candidate must generate a public/private RSA key pair with GnuPG, which should be signed by at least one official Debian developer. The signature authenticates the name on the key. Effectively, during a key signing party, each participant must show an identity card together with their key identifiers. This step makes the link between the human and the keys official. This signature thus requires meeting in real life. If you have not yet met any Debian developers in a public free software conference, you can explicitly seek developers living nearby using the list on the following webpage as a starting point.

Once the registration on nm.debian.org has been validated by the advocate, an Application Manager is assigned to the candidate. The application manager will, from there on, follow procedures and validate the various steps that the process includes.

The first verification is an identity check. If you already have a key signed by two Debian developers, this step is easy; otherwise, the application manager will try and guide you in your search for Debian developers close by to organize a meet-up and a key signing. At the very beginning of the process, when the number of developers was small, there was an exception to this procedure which allowed this step to be completed with a digital scan of official identification documents; this is no longer the case.

These administrative formalities are followed with philosophical considerations. The point is to make sure that the candidate understands and accepts the social contract and the principles behind Free Software. Joining Debian is only possible if one shares the values that unite the current developers, as expressed in the founding texts (and summarized in Chapter 1, The Debian Project).

In addition, each candidate wishing to join Debian ranks is expected to know the workings of the project, and how to interact appropriately to solve the problems they will doubtless encounter as time passes. All of this information is generally documented in manuals targeting the new maintainers, and in the Debian developer's reference. An attentive reading of this document should be enough to answer the examiner's questions. If the answers are not satisfactory, the candidate will be informed. He will then have to read (again) the relevant documentation before trying again. In the cases where the existing documentation does not contain the appropriate answer for the question, the candidate can usually reach an answer with some practical experience within Debian, or potentially by discussing with other Debian developers. This mechanism ensures that candidates get involved somewhat in Debian before becoming a full part of it. It is a deliberate policy, by which candidates who eventually join the project are integrated as another piece of an infinitely extensible jigsaw puzzle.

This step is usually known as the Philosophy & Procedures (P&P for short) in the lingo of the developers involved in the new member process.

Each application to become an official Debian developer must be justified. Becoming a project member requires showing that this status is legitimate, and that it facilitates the candidate's job in helping Debian. The most common justification is that being granted Debian developer status eases maintenance of a Debian package, but it is not the only one. Some developers join the project to contribute to porting to a specific architecture, others want to improve documentation, and so on.

This step represents the opportunity for the candidate to state what they intend to do within the Debian project and to show what they have already done towards that end. Debian is a pragmatic project and saying something is not enough, if the actions do not match what is announced. Generally, when the intended role within the project is related to package maintenance, a first version of the prospective package will have to be validated technically and uploaded to the Debian servers by a sponsor among the existing Debian developers.

Finally, the examiner checks the candidate's technical (packaging) skills with a detailed questionnaire. Bad answers are not permitted, but the answer time is not limited. All the documentation is available and several tries are allowed if the first answers are not satisfactory. This step does not intend to discriminate, but to ensure at least a modicum of knowledge common to new contributors.

This step is known as the Tasks & Skills step in the examiners' jargon.

At the very last step, the whole process is reviewed by a DAM (Debian Account Manager). The DAM will review all the information about the candidate that the examiner collected, and makes the decision on whether or not to create an account on the Debian servers. In cases where extra information is required, the account creation may be delayed. Refusals are rather rare if the examiner does a good job of following the process, but they sometimes happen. They are never permanent, and the candidate is free to try again at a later time.

The DAM's decision is authoritative and (almost) without appeal, which explains why the people in that seat (currently, Jörg Jaspert, Christoph Berg and Enrico Zini) have often been criticized in the past.