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.

Public mistakes are a feature of open source

Everyone who is good at something has a trail of [mistakes] in their wake. Open source means sharing the learning experience with others.

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Write a vision and mission statement for your project

Your project’s vision and mission statement give the community an ideal to rally around. They define what your project is — and isn’t.

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Combinatorial releases won’t help

The general software release workflow looks like something Gutenberg would recognize from 1440 because it actually works pretty well.

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Use care in examples and placeholders

Placeholder configs for services that the user will interact with should be intentionally broken to protect users and innocent bystanders.

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Release announcements must be a part of your process

Release announcements give you a chance to create buzz around your project that can help attract new users and contributors.

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Considering the wishes of upstream projects

Distributions should be opinionated. If you have a sound reason for ignoring upstream’s wishes, do it. But understand you may get no support.

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On “predetermined” outcomes

You’re obliged to listen to the comments in good faith; you’re not obliged to be convinced by them.

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Should you prohibit pseudonyms?

If you’re considering adopting a “real name only” policy for your project, think about what problem you’re actually trying to solve.

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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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