Being a good open source project owner involves more than just writing code and publishing it on GitHub. It requires a certain level of commitment to maintaining the project, as well as being responsive to the needs and concerns of the community of contributors and users.

Here are some tips for how to be a good open-source project owner:

1. Clearly define the scope and purpose of your project

Before you start inviting others to contribute, it’s important to have a clear vision of what your project is and what it aims to achieve. This will help you attract the right contributors and users, as well as guide your decision-making as the project evolves.

2. Establish guidelines for contribution

To ensure that contributions are consistent with the goals of your project, it’s a good idea to set up guidelines for how contributions should be made. This could include guidelines for coding standards, testing, and documentation.

3. Be responsive to issues and pull requests

One of the key responsibilities of an open source project owner is to review and respond to issues and pull requests submitted by the community. This means being timely in your responses and providing constructive feedback.

4. Foster a welcoming and inclusive community

A key aspect of being a good open source project owner is creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for contributors and users. This means being respectful and supportive of everyone, regardless of their background or experience level. One should understand the concept of resource management to play effectively.

5. Communicate effectively

Good communication is essential for the success of any open-source project. This means being clear and transparent in your communication with contributors and users, and being proactive in keeping them informed about the direction of the project. Making use of good Open Source Project Management Software can be of help to make communication easy with your users.

6. Be open to feedback and suggestions

As a project owner, it’s important to be open to feedback and suggestions from the community. This can help you identify areas for improvement and ensure that the project is meeting the needs of its users. This is what and how Agile Project Management defines. To take feedback and work on it.

7. Stay organized and prioritize effectively

As the project grows and evolves, it’s important to stay organized and prioritize tasks effectively. This could involve using tools like Open Source PM Software (a.k.a Open Source Project Management Software) or setting up a roadmap to guide the direction of the project. Time Tracking and Schedule Management come into play while managing and organizing the tasks.

8. Be consistent in your leadership

Being a good open source project owner also means being consistent in your leadership and decision-making. This means being fair and transparent in your decision-making process, and being open to input from the community.

9. Be proactive in addressing problems

As a project owner, it’s important to be proactive in addressing problems that arise. This could involve fixing bugs, addressing security issues, or addressing any other challenges that may arise.

10. Give credit where it’s due

Finally, it’s important to give credit where it’s due and recognize the contributions of others. This could involve publicly thanking contributors, or even offering them co-authorship on papers or other materials related to the project. This helps you grow your community and Resource Management.

Prepare yourself for what’s to come

Owning an open source project comes with many difficulties.

It takes up a lot of your time, which is the thing that stands out. It takes time to do anything for your project, including writing code, managing issues, updating dependencies, interacting with others, and so forth.

Every minute you devote to your open source project is a minute you could have spent with your family, engaging in your hobby, improving your health, or doing something else.

Starting delegation is the only thing you can do to improve this situation. When you have sufficient collaborators, you can delegate some of your duties to the people you believe in. Make use of Open Source PM Software to manage your project and have better communication among your collaborators.

Prepare Documentation

Without documentation, an open source project is the same as dead.

It is dead because nobody will examine your code to determine how to use it. No one will even be aware of what your code is supposed to do until they know how to do it.

So, basically, what and how are the two things that your documentation needs to include. These are the pillars of documentation, the absolute necessities.

How to Make Your Open-Source Project More Notable

We’ve already talked about what it means to begin a project, how to do it best, and how to create effective documentation.

Let’s now discuss promoting your project to the public and making it as effective as possible at luring and effectively managing donations.

The prerequisites for this section are that you already have an open source project, that it is listed on GitHub, that it is well documented, and that you can use one of the package registries to easily consume it.

Listen to your users

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, the truth is that users also define the road map, in addition to you. Most times, it is defined by the users.

Owning an open-source project means that you are doing it for others, not for yourself.

Provide several avenues for feedback. Some users will only have a brief question, and you can quickly respond with an answer.

Potential contributors who remain anonymous would like to talk about the roadmap. Ensure communication methods so that they have a way to reach you. Share your Twitter account, a link to Slack or Discord, and other social media accounts. The better, the more channels.

Conclusion

In summary, being a good open-source project owner involves much more than just writing code. It requires a commitment to maintaining the project, being responsive to the needs and concerns of the community, and fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment. By following these tips, you can help ensure the success and sustainability of your open-source project.

More and more people are recognizing the benefits of using open source software. Though the open source community has been actively promoting the benefits of open source software for years, there have never been as many open source projects in use as there are now. Open Source Project Management has been a major trend for businesses that manage software through Open Source Project Management Software.

However, the majority of people and businesses are still unsure or have little knowledge of the open source philosophy. For you to make an informed choice, this article will provide you with a summary of the top open source benefits and potential drawbacks.

We can know the open source software’s principal benefits through its advantages below:

1. Complete Openness

The purpose of open source software is the transparency of its code; what you see is what you get. In actuality, the complete transparency of its code is the source of many other benefits associated with open source software.

Users of open source software more conceivably trust the software vendor since they can view the source code. Resource management cannot be hectic while using open source project management software to manage the project. Additionally, because the source code is openly accessible, users can use it for long-term projects with confidence, knowing that the product won’t just be dropped.

2. Adaptability

Open source software and open source PM software are adaptable in that it enables programmers to inspect the code’s functionality and make adjustments as necessary. They can thereby modify the software to suit the requirements of their business or themselves. One of the biggest benefits of this kind of software is that it can fix troublesome components of the program.

One of the major benefits of open source software is its flexibility because it offers freedom from vendor lock-in and the capacity to extend and modify an application.

3. Agility

Agility is a word that every business dictionary loves to use. To stay ahead of the competition today, businesses must be nimble. Since it enables numerous approaches to a single problem, open source software excellently satisfies the need for agility and Agile Project Management.

The open source community also frequently modifies and updates the software that is made available to the public. Updates to commercial software happen more infrequently and typically for financial and business-related reasons.

4. Improved Safety

Open source proponents frequently assert that their software is safer than proprietary alternatives. Open source software is not, however, intrinsically more secure. Instead, the level of security is raised for several reasons.

• The number of code reviewers is increasing. As a result, more errors may be identified and resolved.
• Updates are performed more frequently, and issues are fixed much more quickly. This gives attackers very little time to take advantage of any coding flaws.

Quite often, open source components are used extensively in closed-source software. As a result, closed-source software may not necessarily provide greater security, particularly if the open source components are badly maintained and infrequently updated.

5. Cost-Effectiveness

Open source software is frequently free or less expensive than proprietary software.

You consequently save money on license and maintenance costs. Additionally, the majority of open source solutions use fewer hardware resources to complete their job. In other words, you can reduce the cost of hardware!

The possibility for businesses to test the software in small-scale settings before implementing it widely is another cost-effective feature.

6. Beginning Modestly

In addition to being cost-effective, starting small and testing the open source software on a smaller scale has other advantages. Companies can check to verify if the proposed solution is the best one for them, for starters.

Teams frequently begin using open source software in businesses before switching to versions with commercial support as their demands expand. As a result, this open source benefit makes it simpler for businesses to test out various solutions and grow them as necessary.

7. Powering the Digital Transformation

The digital transformation’s driving force businesses that don’t participate in digital transformation frequently find themselves on the losing end of things as the globe advances.

This study shows that businesses are increasingly relying on open source software to drive digital transformation while enhancing effectiveness, adaptability, and interoperability. 48% of businesses cite the open source as a “very essential” driver of their digital transformation projects. They can be used in several software project management methodologies like Time Tracking, Schedule Management, Agile Project Management, and various others.

8. Community’s Ability

Team collaboration is incredibly effective, as demonstrated by open source communities and contributors. Developers frequently suggest improvements to the code to improve functionality, security, or other factors because it is publicly available. Any proprietary program simply cannot match this open source software advantage!

9. Finding Talent

Employing open source software enables businesses to draw in higher-level personnel. Additionally, it offers plenty of chances for developers to grow professionally and learn new things.

The ability to independently develop their projects appeals to many developers. Recruiters are having difficulty finding top-tier talent to work in their firms due to a developer shortage in the market. The use of open source projects may be the solution to this problem!

10. No lock-in with Vendors

One of the primary advantages of open source software is the freedom to use, modify, and distribute it (with some licenses more than others).

This freedom includes the ability to discontinue using the software without suffering severe consequences. Organizations that use proprietary software run the risk of being forced to stay by price hikes and the vendor’s inability to withdraw without losing any data.

Conclusion

Open source software has risks like any other technology, but these risks are outweighed by its benefits. Open Source Project Management Software is the best option for choosing any OSS. Open source projects have some drawbacks as a non-profit community develops them, primarily because it is free to use.

The choice to use open source software should be based on several factors, as we have seen above, including the size of the end-user company, the scope of the project, the technical expertise of the end-user developers, and more. An end-user must carefully research the options, specifications, and developers for their type of project before deciding on open source software.

For IT teams, 2022 is expected to be a year of transition and difficulties. The IT PMO now has to handle a wide range of initiatives, and as a result, IT Project Management has taken a leap in Remote team management.

We have a great introduction to IT PMOs that explains what an IT PMO is, what an IT PMO can accomplish for your firm, and how Orangescrum can assist.

It serves as a fundamental manual for how IT PMO and IT Project Management Software might support organizational alignment with and achievement of strategic goals.

A crucial component of the jigsaw is IT Project Management. In order to match your business ambitions, it must ultimately prioritize and enable project work that IT teams may carry out.

We aim to move on to the IT PMO over the course of a three-blog series. The following subjects will be covered when we delve a little further into IT initiatives made possible by the PMO:

1. The teams’ condition of readiness and flexible IT project management in 2022
2. Enabling openness in product development and IT operations
3. Ideas for launching the execution of an IT project successfully

The challenges: The condition of IT in 2022

The COVID and post-COVID worlds, which IT teams have successfully led with remarkable success, have been discussed and written about extensively. IT teams effectively enabled their whole organization to stabilize and prosper as their workforce migrated remotely, changing from a “black box cost center” to a “business-enabling value center” in what seemed to happen overnight and during 2020–2021.

These same teams have been entrusted with reducing the inefficiencies within their hybrid models as we moved toward more permanent remote, hybrid, and in-office setups. While some businesses have had incredible success, others are having trouble. Due to this, concerns over the efficacy of remote and hybrid teams will likely increase in popularity by 2022.

Organizations have seen economic flashes of uncertainty during Q2 2022, which has heightened worries about a potential recession. As businesses look for ways to cut expenses through OpEx and CapEx spending, the early response has started to become apparent.

These COVID and financial realities have given rise to a new baseline of expectations for IT teams, which is further supported by the following prevalent patterns in IT leadership polls in 2022:

1. Teams in IT and business must work together more effectively than before.
2. Despite the enormous expansion of Agile, Waterfall is still useful today.

IT teams must switch from custom software to collaborative solutions where actual product development gets into the domain and team management gets easier. With IT project management software like Orangescrum, it can be much easier to achieve what has been planned.

The post-COVID realities provide us with a prism through which to view fundamental issues that have existed for some time:

1. When adjusting to today’s changing world, flexibility is crucial.
2. There are still inefficiencies between the business and IT operations.

The best IT teams can easily adjust to the difficulty. The best may take it as a chance to not just adapt but also set new standards for adaptability, cooperation, and openness across the board. Let’s look into a few more options for improving our IT personnel.

1. Enable IT teams, to use flexible project management

The SaaS and cloud transition notwithstanding, the information technology industry is still quite complicated. There are many situations in IT project management that contradict corporate standards or processes, which makes cross-functional integration with other business units even more necessary. It’s crucial to have a strategy that may be both prescriptive and adaptable in case your project calls for novel or unusual ways.

Let’s start by taking a look at some of the typical project difficulties that IT teams encounter internally. Then, we’ll talk about how working with the company further reveals the gaps in our connections.

Agile

IT teams all search for ways to incorporate organizational culture into their methods for working on agile projects. While some people prefer more empirical techniques, others search for entertaining and original ways to gauge the length of a tale.

Agile approaches are a great fit for product development, but what about teams like IT Operations or IT Support?

When attempting to integrate Agile approaches into their work (such as data center move), these teams frequently encounter difficulties. A mixed strategy might frequently become a reality. Instead of tearing work apart and compelling it to conform to a predetermined strategy, processes and projects need the flexibility to allow teams to finish their task successfully.

Waterfall

Although Agile is often the technique of choice for product development teams for managing IT projects, there are still prospects for Waterfall projects in the IT industry today.

For instance, Waterfall, or a mixture of Waterfall and Agile is frequently used in projects within IT Operations, Support, or other infrastructure teams and projects. As IT engineers and administrators spend more and more time on capability enablement in comparison to traditional historical methods like infrastructure provisioning, SaaS and Cloud environments are also altering the work of an IT engineer and administrator today.

Once more, a strategy that preserves the adaptability to carry out tasks effectively becomes ideal.

Since the many initiatives within an IT department are dynamic, no one technique or structure can possibly be ideal. Your teams require the flexibility to carry out their task in a logical manner in the modern world. They must promote efficiency while upholding the standards for security, dependability, quality, etc. And the IT department is the only one using this internally.

What about cross-functional engagement with the business, where IT can take part in a variety of projects carried out by other departments in addition to IT-led projects with standard business collaboration?

Encourage seamless teamwork for all organizational tasks

The days of IT teams using tools made specifically for one use and rendered useless when applied to other uses, such as supporting Enterprise Service Management (ESM) inside an organization or taking part in business-led projects, are long gone.

The modern workplace demands that IT teams communicate in the same language as the rest of the organization, collaborate on the same platform, and move work among the numerous teams as seamlessly as possible.

Great IT teams are unable to revert to a “black box” mentality where their actions, metrics for success, and outcomes are internal to their department and unconnected to the rest of the business.

A single language for the IT PMO and/or organizational PMO is enabled through transparency into Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), shared dashboards with uniform measurement criteria, and reporting that can handle any department.

Modern projects should make it simple for any employee to carry out the task remotely without having to gradually learn how to use specialist equipment. The leadership should have a constant understanding of their PMO accomplishments or issues, and staff members should be able to work with one another with ease even remotely. This can happen only in good remote team management.

What could be done right away, though?

A stiff cliffhanger simply doesn’t feel right in a post on flexibility. Here are some provocative questions you may start debating right now to assess where you are right now and where you can go:

• Do we adapt our IT project management strategy to the work, or does the work adapt to the strategy?
• Do our interactions actually encourage productivity across all teams?
• Do other departments and vice versa have seamless access to our work?
• What tools do we employ to collaborate on business goals outside of IT?
• Are the Enterprise Service Management solutions actually intended for the enterprise?

IT industry is still facing certain difficulties in 2022. The need to collaborate closely with departments outside of IT is driven by the ongoing need to adapt to the post-COVID workplace, uncertainties in the economic environment, and a number of trends.

With the best project management software for IT Teams available in the market, managing the work and team along with adapting to the environment was made easy.

As was mentioned, two excellent methods to start adapting to all of these changes are by providing flexible project management and encouraging seamless cooperation across all departments using effective tools like Orangescrum for Project Management for IT teams. Try Orangescrum with 15 days free trial to manage your IT team.

Hey Orangescrummers! It’s my pleasure to share the latest feature updates in Orangescrum project management software. We have released the feature “Epic” a collection of Stories that represent larger initiatives. We’re pleased to hear that it’s something you’ve been requesting and finally we have released the features to make your project management work smooth and simple.

The overall idea behind releasing this feature is to create an Epic on a separate page with minimum fields to be stored in the same table as tasks are stored. We will restrict certain functionality with epic-type tasks.

The epic feature is available for only scrum-type projects where the user needs the user access control to create/Edit/View an Epic.

Before deep diving into the feature, let me clarify the basics of Epic.

Epics bridge the gap between strategic initiatives and individual features.  Use EPIC to break work down incrementally — define a bigger project, separate it into key epics, then build out features and requirements in more detail. It’s also more convenient to discuss the product at a high level, for example, with stakeholders with no technical background, by looking at it as a set of epics.

What is an Epic?

An epic is one big piece of feature, a bigger project, an initiative, or just an issue that collects the work of mutual areas.

Otherwise is a collection of Stories that represent larger initiatives. Just like Stories, Epics move through a workflow and can be completed.

One can link all other issues to the epic to keep track of every task that’s related to a project.

In most cases, one can try to cover high-level goals (not detailed solutions) to reflect the (business) value.

The epic helps the team to understand the goal and together can work out how we can get there.

How to create an Epic?

Ideally, the Epic module is used within the agile methodology projects. But here in Orangescrum, users can use the Epic module both for agile projects and Waterfall projects.

To create an Epic either on a waterfall project or an agile project, users need to go to the task listing page.

Once you click the “+” icon, you can find the “Create epic” pop-up.

On the Epic creation form, you need to add

• Epic Title
• Select the Priority
• Epic description
• start date and end date,
• File attachments (Google Drive, One Drive, DropBox)

Once an Epic is created within your project (in both agile and simple projects), users can link or choose the same epic in multiple tasks.

In agile projects, users can link an epic to a task from the backlog page as well.

Epic View in Orangescrum

Once you create an Epic within your project, you can move to the Epic View.

In waterfall projects, Epic view only can be used as a level of the task. There is no specific epic view module available within Orangescrum at the moment.

But for agile projects, Orangescum has a separate Epic view block. Users can find the tasks and stories related to each epic and track the progress respectively.

Once you come to the Epic view panel on the backlog page, you can able to track the:

• Epic progress percentage
• Number of stories
• Number of tasks completed/closed
• Number of tasks in progress

Future enhancements:

This Epic view is one of the primary demands of our customers and we released the 1st module of it. Many more enchantments are in progress to make it more efficient for our global customers.

Future enhancements list:

• Epic View Report
• Epic Detail View
• Single Epic for Different Projects

User Note for Orangescrum Epic View

How do I assign an Epic to a Story?

You can edit individual Stories and assign the desired Epic from the Epic field. You can use the Search option in the Epic dropdown field to quickly find your desired Epic.

You can also assign an epic to a story from the backlog page by clicking on the EPIC label.

What happens when a child tasks epic is changed to another EPIC?

When a child task EPIC is changed then any stories or parent tasks that are associated with the child task will be updated with the new epic label.

What happens when a story associated with an epic is changed to another epic?

When the EPIC of a story is changed then all tasks that are associated with the story will be updated with the new epic label.

What happens when an EPIC is deleted?

If an EPIC is deleted, tasks associated with the epic are delinked.

Conclusion

Hope you already have started using Epic View within Orangescrum! Many already have.

As of now, the Epic view is not the alter point of departure of an agile program, but it can be a viable driver for most agile development projects. Conception stands for how it fits into your agile program. Sign up now to check how Epic is helping to manage your agile projects.

Do not hesitate to revert back with your feedback.