Contributor

Owned by Rachel Lawson (Unlicensed)
Sep 15, 2023
3 min read

Everyone who participates in the GovStack project is a Contributor, whether they are a member of one of the partners, a contracted expert, a person also filling another role in the project like a Technical Expert, or someone simply giving us a single piece of feedback.

Responsibilities

  • To always follow the GovStack Code of Conduct

  • To ensure that any issues raised by the Contributor contain enough information for them to be acted upon. Describe the what needs to be added or changed, any possible solutions the Contributor may consider useful, and why the contribution helps improve the specifications.

Actions

Proposing new or changed content

All Contributors are able to propose new content for the specifications, or propose changes to the current content and should follow this process:

  1. Describe their proposal in a Jira issue. Creating an issue is possible in two ways:

    1. For a first time contributor, the easiest way to create an issue is by visiting the specification, finding the page upon which their is something requiring a change and clicking the “Give Feedback” menu item. This will open a form that allows them to describe the change proposed, possible alternatives, and why the change improves the specification. A Jira issue will be automatically created on their behalf in the correct Jira project and a link to that issue will be sent to the Contributor. If the Contributor uses an email already registered with Jira, we will attempt to associate the issue with the Contributor’s account but they can also set the issues reporter to their account manually, if they prefer.

    2. Visit the correct Jira project for the Building Block where they wish to propose a change and create a new issue. Fill in the issue description, describing the change proposed, possible alternatives, and why the change improves the specification.

  2. Consider how the proposal in the issue meets the Quality Criteria for inclusion in the GovStack Specification. Making reference to these criteria in the issue’s justification for the change (the “why make this change”), may well improve the chances of the proposed change being accepted.

  3. Check in on the issue occasionally for any questions posed by other Contributors or specialist roles like the Triage Lead or Technical Experts. Answer any questions posed as fully as possible.

  4. Contributors do not need to assign issues to anyone nor change the issue status.

  5. A Contributor might be invited to create a Change Request on GitBook that contains their proposed changes/additions. If so, the overall process is as follows and further training available:

    1. Contributor invited to make a Change Request on GitBook

    2. Contributor creates a new Change Request on the Building Block’s Development space in GitBook, copying the Jira issue number and issue title into the Change Request title. (It would look something like “SKD-36 Update Mermaid diagrams”)

    3. Submit the Change Request and copy the url link for the Change Request into a comment on the Jira issue so others can easily find it

    4. Answer any questions about the Change Request in the Jira issue comments and maybe make further changes to the Change Request based on any questions/feedback.

Commenting upon another person’s proposal

All Contributors are encouraged to comment upon issues raised by other Contributors, if they have further useful input. Consider how the comment will help the issue progress towards completion.

Why be a Contributor?

The GovStack project is creating a future of interoperable components that will improve people’s lives all around the world. Being a Contributor is a vital way to be a part of that future, both helping that future come to fruition and allowing the Contributor to learn from all of the other Contributors on the project. They will get to work with people leading this field and demonstrate their own understanding and skills to others.