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.

Cancelling meetings isn’t a magical fix

Valuable meetings increase the work that gets done by providing coordination and accountability. Keep the valuable meetings. Cancel the rest.

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What goes in a release schedule?

Tasks that are low-impact and apt to be forgotten if not done on a regular cadence probably belong on a calendar instead of the schedule.

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Avoiding hero work pays off in the long run

Avoid burnout and maintain a culture that people want to be a part of by getting rid of hero work. It’s an investment in the long term.

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How to take notes at meetings

When there’s no chatbot to record meeting notes, you have to do it yourself. This post shares tips for before, during, and after the meeting.

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“Field of Dreams” is not a strategy for community growth

Growing an open source community requires individual connections. The mere act of existence is not enough to build a community.

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Getting started is just the start

You’ll need to continually refine processes as you go. That’s easier if you think beyond just what you need at the start.

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License changes are API changes

Making a license change affects how people interact with your project. You need to treat license changes as if they were changes to your API.

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No task is too small to track if that’s what it takes to get it done

When in doubt, add the task. It’s better to track unnecessarily than to not track something important.

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Roadmaps are valuable for open source projects

The moment you go from one contributor to two, you have to start coordinating. The project roadmap is an excellent tool for that.

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Plan for what happens after your project is done

Your open source project will end one day. That’s okay. But you should think about what will happen with your project after it’s done.

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