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Program management for open source projects

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2024-08-07

“Helping” versus being helpful

Every situation is different, so ask “would it be helpful if I _?” When you get agreement on your help, your work will be helpful.

Categories Posts
2024-07-31

When to add QA to your project

Add QA when someone volunteers to do it. Recruit QA when your user-reported bugs start to overwhelm your developers.

Categories Posts
2024-07-24

A veneer of organization

Building up too much process early is a way to look busy without accomplishing anything. You have to fit it to the community’s need.

Categories Posts
2024-07-10

Your project is political, people’s identities aren’t

No project that involves people is “purely technical.” And “ideologically motivated” is not a synonym for “bad”.

Categories Posts
2024-07-03

“Finished” and “no longer developed” aren’t the same

Software is finished when it reliably does what it’s intended to.

Categories Posts
2024-06-26

Tasks and projects: what’s the difference?

It’s not always clear how to distinguish between tasks and projects. My rule of thumb: tasks have binary state, projects have several states.

Categories Posts
2024-06-19

Membership needs a removal process

People need to be removed for a variety of reasons, and having planned ahead makes the process much easier.

Categories Posts
2024-06-12

The easy fixes probably aren’t in your code

Mature projects don’t have many easy fixes left in the code. But test coverage, documentation, websites, and other areas probably have plenty.

Categories Posts
2024-06-05

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.

Categories Posts
2024-05-22

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.

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.

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Cover of the book Program Management for Open Source Projects

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

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Upcoming talks

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Latest posts

  • It’s okay to be partial to your work2025-05-28
  • Growing your project means doing less coding2025-05-21
  • Adding pre-report bug discussion2025-05-14
  • Use reserved domains and IPs in examples2025-05-07

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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