Turbot, the team behind the open-source project Steampipe, has learned valuable lessons while managing over 200 open-source repositories. The first lesson is the importance of responding instantly to community members’ issues and pull requests. By monitoring everything and alerting the core team, Turbot ensures swift responses and prioritizes external contributors. Another key lesson is the need for early and clear communication about project goals to avoid misunderstandings. Treating contributors like team members, collaborating closely, and giving credit for their work also fosters progress. Turbot emphasizes the necessity of age reports, burn-downs, consistency checks, and high-quality documentation to maintain an efficient and user-friendly open-source project.
https://turbot.com/blog/2023/10/repo-management