Program Management for Open Source Projects

Create a Template

Problem: Contributors submit their feature plans with no consistency or structure. Critical information gets left out of the initial proposal.

Before developing a process for how to handle feature proposals, let’s figure out what a feature proposal is. For a lightweight process, a proposal might be a simple email that says “I’m going to do blah.” But to get the most value from the process, be specific about what it is you want the proposer to communicate. Since you’re enumerating this information anyway, you might as well make a template. This simplifies everyone’s life. The template shows a contrived example of what a feature proposal template might look like.

Encourage Preproposals
	You don’t need to require a fully formed ...