The Pragmatic Contributor offers a step-by-step guide to contributing back to open source projects, focusing on improvements and solving issues for software your business relies on. The guide emphasizes the importance of communication, maintaining a respectful relationship with maintainers, and making sure your contributions benefit the community. Steps to follow include getting legal approval, understanding the contribution process, getting maintainer buy-in, doing the work with a focus on communication, adding tests, preserving backwards-compatibility, writing documentation, and submitting your patch for review. The guide also highlights the importance of patience and gratitude towards maintainers.
https://diurnal.st/2025/03/02/the-pragmatic-open-source-contributor.html