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Program management for open source projects

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2022-07-22

Program Management for Open Source Projects is here!

After a year and a half of work, I’m happy to say that Program Management for Open Source Projects is now available in its final form! You can buy the DRM-free ebook right now directly from The Pragmatic Bookshelf. If you want a paperback, U.S. customers can place a pre-order via Bookshop. It’s also available for pre-order on Amazon. Writing...

Categories News
2022-07-21

Your bug tracker and you (SCaLE)

At SCaLE 19x, I presented “Your bug tracker and you.” This is an extended version of my SeaGL 2021 talk. For SeaGL, I said “I got it completely written and then realized that I had focused on entirely the wrong aspects and had to rewrite it.” Since my time slot at SCaLE is twice as long, you’ll get the parts...

Categories Talks
2022-07-19

A quick intro to development methodologies

Just as there’s more than one way to pet a cat, there’s more than one way to develop software. At the risk of over-simplifying, you can consider two broad methodology categories: waterfall and agile. Strictly speaking, these are software development methodologies, not project management methodologies. You can plug any of them into your project management lifecycle. Over many projects, your...

Categories Posts
2022-05-09

A picture is worth a thousand words

Sometimes following your own advice makes you realize that the advice is good. This is one such story.

Categories Posts
2022-04-25

New resource: decision template

I added a new entry on the Duck Alignment Academy Resources page: a decision template. Use this template when you need to make a decision in the community. It provides a simple way to define the problem, the proposed solution, and the process for making the decision. Too often, decisions in open source communities become complicated because participants make incompatible...

Categories Resources
2022-04-14

Using variables in Smartsheet task names

Using variables in Smartsheet makes copying new schedules easier and less error-prone.

Categories Posts
2022-04-11

PgM for OSS Beta 5 released

The fifth beta release of Program Management for Open Source Projects is now available from the The Pragmatic Bookshelf.

Categories News
2022-04-07

PgM for OSS 50% off through April 13

Save 50% on Program Management for Open Source Projects when you use promo code COMMUNICATION2022 through April 13, 2022.

Categories News
2022-03-12

PgM for OSS Beta 4 released

The forth beta release of Program Management for Open Source Projects features a new chapter on making good decisions.

Categories News
2022-03-11

It’s Never Too Late to Fix Your Versioning

Release numbers should clearly communicate the scope of changes. If they don’t, you can fix that any time.

Categories Posts

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About This Site

Learn how to get your ducks in a row, your cats herded, or any other animal metaphor you can think of.

2025 trends

Hand-drawn graphs on a sheet of white paper sitting on a desk.
Read my 2025 open source trends predictions.

Get the book

Cover of the book Program Management for Open Source Projects

Ebooks available from The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Print available from Bookshop and Amazon.

Newsletter

Subscribe to the free monthly newsletter to keep up on the latest news, events, and updates.

Upcoming talks

Want to book me for your project or company? See the Speaking page for details.

Latest posts

  • Keynote: Improving Security Data With ORBIT2025-08-28
  • GUAC+Trustify: Building a Common Supply Chain Knowledge Graph (OpenSSF Community Day)2025-08-28
  • Who is a “member” of your project?2025-08-27
  • Duplicate bug reports and how to handle them2025-08-20

Except where noted, all content © Ben Cotton and provided under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license except where noted. Logo design by alexlexi.

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