Java enhancement proposals present design and implementation changes to the Java platform. As previously stated, the criteria for a JEP being drafted is that the work must meet at least one of the following:

• Requires significant engineering work to implement (at least two weeks)
• Involves a significant change to the JDK or its infrastructure
• Is a high demand item from Java developers or users

Projects, on the other hand, represent collaborative efforts that are sponsored by one of the following groups:

• 2D Graphics
• Adoption
• Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT)
• Build
• Compatibility and specification review
• Compiler
• Conformance
• Core libraries
• Governing board
• HotSpot
• Internationalization
• JMX
• Members
• Networking
• NetBeans projects
• Porters
• Quality
• Security
• Serviceability
• Sound
• Swing
• Vulnerability
• Web

Groups are formal and new ones can be proposed.

The following listed active projects represent possible future enhancement areas to the Java platform. Brief information about each project is provided later in this section and provides insight into general areas of future changes:

• Annotations Pipeline 2.0
• Audio Synthesis Engine
• Caciocavallo
• Common VM Interface
• Compiler Grammar
• Device I/O
• Graal
• HarfBuzz Integration
• Kona
• OpenJFX
• Panama
• Shenandoah