Open Source Governance for Software Engineers

The goal of this presentation is twofold:

Firstly, we want to demystify open source project governance. Do you freeze when you hear the term governance? Do you blindly copy and paste the governance of other projects hoping it works for your project too? Do you struggle to keep governance up to date or aligned with what’s actually going on in the project? You’re not alone.

Secondly, we want to provide a simple, practical, and proven approach to writing governance that’s directly inspired from coding best practices. The very same concepts that are used when writing code (e.g. Don’t Repeat Yourself, Keep It Simple, or Separation of Concerns) have direct application when authoring governance documents and create the same kind of positive outcomes: governance that is simple to understand, flexible, and and easy to maintain. You’ll never come back from thinking about governance as code.

By the time you leave this presentation, you’ll have an entirely new perspective on governance and will feel empowered by your ability to leverage your existing software engineering skills in this new domain.