A presentation at State of Open Con in in London, UK by Lorna Jane Mitchell
Developer Experience in Open Source Lorna Mitchell, Redocly @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Developer Experience Developer experience is about people getting things done in a confident and efficient way. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Open Source Lifecycle From user to contributor. From contributor to maintainer. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
The art of README @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
README structure 1.Project purpose 2.Installation 3.Basic usage 4.Further resources @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Documentation Documentation is a multiplier. •Use Docs-as-Code •Publishing is optional •Getting started •Platform-specific info •Advanced usage @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Metadata Topic tags help project discovery. Introduce your project briefly. Key project measurements. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Issues •A well-maintained issue list is a warm welcome. •Respond, and close as appropriate. •List all known issues, and any workarounds. •Use the help-wanted and good-first-issue tags. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Code of Conduct A code of conduct sets out expectations for all participants. GitHub prompts with a selection of CoC templates. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Contributing file Everything a new user needs to contribute. •Branching strategy •Commit naming requirements •How to run tests •Coding standards, linting •How to set up local tools •Docs process @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Pull request reviews Transferrable skill from other code projects. •Be clear and constructive •Be prepared to add one more commit •Be consistent •Be responsive Does this feature improve things for the project audience/purpose? @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Tools and automation Let the machines do the work @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
What to automate A non-exhaustive list of suggestions: •tests •linting (all file formats) •formatting/coding standards •build or compile •spell and link checking Include anything you can include. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Local tools Provide developer information in CONTRIBUTING.md. Local tools shorten feedback cycle and improve developer experience. @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Outreach Your project is more than the code. Build and enable the ecosystem: •write about the project •feature cool projects using your project •check stackoverflow questions •speak at a meetup @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Developer Experience in Open Source @redocly ~ @lornajane ~ @lornajane@indieweb.social
Developer experience is gaining traction, but the industry best practice looks a little different when applied to open source communities. In this session, you will hear how to bring the best bits of developer experience philosophy to your open source projects in a practical way. Starting with the onboarding documentation and how the project is organised, covering developers who are users as well as those who may be contributors one day. Thinking about good processes for issue and pull request management that encourage and enable everyone to contribute. How solid tooling, available for local and CI use can help minimise pull request review cycles, and why that matters more in open source. Finally, how publishing and amplifying the project can enable developers further. This talk is packed with actionable tips and brings both old and new ideas together to build on and make your own. Recommended for project leads and anyone who wants to make open source developers more successful.
