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Program management for open source projects

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2024-04-17

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.

Categories Posts
2024-04-12

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.

Categories Posts
2024-04-10

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.

Categories Posts
2024-04-05

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.

Categories Posts
2024-04-03

“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.

Categories Posts
2024-03-29

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.

Categories Posts
2024-03-27

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.

Categories Posts
2024-03-22

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.

Categories Posts
2024-03-20

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.

Categories Posts
2024-03-15

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.

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

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Latest posts

  • Ruby Central’s lesson in how not to do it2025-10-08
  • The solution to deadlines is usually “cut scope”2025-10-01
  • Flash sale on all Pragmatic Bookshelf titles2025-09-18
  • Planning ahead is the most important part of code of conduct enforcement2025-09-17

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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