The folks over at the Soil, Compost & Mulch forum will give you the best answers to your questions

I do think you need up over think this. Composting is easy. Just layer green and brown layers and turn the material over every now and then. Worms will do the rest of the job. Their poo will actually make the soil even richer. The bacteria will also do the rest of the job. Watch out for mice that make their nests in undisturbed piles.

Ive done many methods of composting BTW - burying the material and also piing them in a composter or just piling them. regular mixing will help decompose the material faster because of the oxygen. Itès also important to wet your compost pile just in case it gets too heated up that it may burn.

Sorry.. I'm short sighted and unfortunately, did not read my response thoroughly. I had meant to say that you need not have to over think the process of composting. Just follow the formula of brown and green layering and mixing things up every now and then. It's the bacteria and earthworms that will do the job. Once you have made a pile that is tall enough, start another pile. After a few months, the first pile should be ready to use. Another form of composting is the lasagna method which is to bury the material in the ground and then plant directly beside it. As the plant matter decomposes, the live plants benefit from this. (however one does have to think about creatures it may attract that can be detrimental to the live plant. )