Author: Ben Cotton

Ben formerly led open source messaging at Docker and was the Fedora Program Manager. He is the author of Program Management for Open Source Projects. Ben is an Open Organization Ambassador and frequent conference speaker. His personal website is Funnel Fiasco.

The flywheel theory of community engagement

The Flywheel Theory says that the long term sustainability of a community project depends on having someone who can keep the momentum going.

Talks

Manage your project deadlines

Deadlines are easy to set and hard to meet. So how do you set deadlines that aren’t hard to meet? It’s not hard!

Posts

Should you require a criterion when nominating a release-blocking bug?

The people discovering — and thus nominating — blocker candidates may not be intimately familiar with your project’s processes.

Posts

Your bug tracker and you (OLF Conference)

At the OLF Conference, I’ll delivered “Your bug tracker and you” and held a book signing for “Program Management for Open Source Projects.”

Talks

Developer and user communication channels

As your project grows, the community has to decide whether or not to maintain unified channels or separate them. How do you decide?

Posts

Save 40% on the Program Management for Open Source Projects ebook!

You can save 40% on ebooks of Program Management for Open Source Projects when you use promo code turkeysale2022 at checkout.

News

Using Taiga to manage writing a book

Taiga’s advanced kanban features made it a great tool to keep track of my work in the year and a half I wrote my book.

Posts

The difference between “when it’s ready” and “YOLO” schedules

Releasing software when it’s ready and a “YOLO” approach aren’t quite the same. While the latter is whimsical, the former has a plan.

Posts

There is no good time for a meeting, only the time you pick

Scheduling a meeting is the most difficult task placed before a program manager. Here’s how you can find a time when all the times are bad.

Posts

Why Are There So Many Competing Open Source Projects?

Why do you have so many choices? Explore the reasons, drawbacks, and benefits of competing open source projects.

Posts