JS Ng

Preparing Your Project for Contributors: A Guide for Managers

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  • project-management

Your solo project is growing! Maybe someone offered to help, or you’re ready to share your work with others. But moving from “works on my machine” to “anyone can contribute” isn’t always smooth. Let’s look at some real situations:

“I documented everything carefully! But when a contributor tried to set up the project, they kept hitting errors. I realised all my documentation was about how to use the project, not how to build it. I had a whole setup process in my head that I’d never written down.”

Or this well-organised but incomplete situation:

“My project had great documentation about the code structure and API. A contributor made some changes and asked ‘How do you want me to submit this?’ I hadn’t even thought about merge request guidelines or branching conventions. We ended up having a long back-and-forth just figuring out the basics.”

Or these confusing moments:

“Why isn’t this working for you? Oh… right… you need to set those three environment variables. And install that utility package. And run the database migration. Sorry, I do it so automatically, I forgot those steps existed!”

“A contributor asked me which code style to follow. I looked at my project and realised I had four different naming conventions across different files - each made sense when I wrote it, but together they’re a mess.”

These stories show us common gaps that appear when projects grow beyond their original scope. Let’s understand what they teach us.

Documentation vs. Development

The first story reveals a common disconnect: the difference between using and building. Many projects have:

✅ Great user documentation

  • How to use the API
  • What each feature does
  • Configuration options
  • Troubleshooting guides

❓ Missing development information

  • How to set up the development environment
  • How to run tests
  • How to build from source
  • Which dependencies are needed

This teaches us an important principle: Projects need different types of documentation for different audiences. Your users need different information than your contributors.

The Hidden Knowledge

Those small “Oh, right…” moments show us something important: every project accumulates invisible knowledge. Things that are so obvious to you that:

  • They feel like common knowledge
  • You do them automatically
  • You forget they’re even steps
  • You assume everyone knows them

This leads us to another principle: Make the implicit explicit. Try to notice when you’re operating on autopilot - those are usually the things you need to document.

The Workflow Gap

The second story shows us what happens when process documentation is missing. Even with great code docs, contributors need to know:

  • How to submit changes
  • Which branch to work from
  • How to format commit messages
  • What the review process is

This isn’t about being bureaucratic – it’s about making contribution smooth and predictable. The principle here is: Clear processes reduce friction.

The Evolution of Style

The last story shows something natural: solo projects evolve. Over time, you might:

  • Try different coding patterns
  • Change naming conventions
  • Reorganise files
  • Adopt new practices

This isn’t bad – it’s learning! But for contributors, inconsistency creates uncertainty. This suggests another principle: Make your current preferences clear, even if they differ from older code.

Making Your Project Ready

These stories point to different types of preparation needed:

For Building and Development

  • Development environment setup
  • Build process steps
  • Test running instructions
  • Common development tasks
  • Debugging tips

For Contributing

  • Where to start
  • How to submit changes
  • Code style preferences
  • Branch naming conventions
  • Commit message format

For Understanding

  • Project overview
  • Code organisation
  • Key concepts
  • Design decisions
  • Common patterns

Starting the Transition

Remember: You don’t need everything perfect before accepting contributions. Start with:

  1. The Basics
    • How to get the code
    • How to set it up
    • How to run it
    • How to test it
  2. The Process
    • How to submit changes
    • What to include
    • What to expect
    • Where to ask questions
  3. The Context
    • What the project does
    • How it’s organised
    • Which patterns to follow
    • What’s important to you

Real Success Story

“I spent an hour writing down every step I could think of for setting up the project. It felt almost silly – surely people would know some of these steps? But my next contributor got everything running in 15 minutes. ‘These docs are great!’ they said. ‘Especially the part about setting environment variables – I always forget those!’”

Moving Forward

Your project documentation will grow and improve over time. Focus on:

  • Writing down things as you notice them
  • Updating docs when people ask questions
  • Learning from contribution attempts
  • Making common tasks easier