Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

Tag
Management and Leadership

14 Nov 2023, 10:45 a.m.

Going From Proprietary To FLOSS Product Management

Someone asked me for pointers on doing product management (and, to a lesser extent, project management) in Free/Libre Open Source Projects for the first time, after many years of experience in proprietary software. I basically …

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08 Sep 2022, 12:01 p.m.

Reluctance To Process Contributions, and Tips from InnerSource

So there's a software development approach, borrowing techniques from open source for use within an enterprise, called InnerSource. It's "the use of open source best practices for software development within the confines of an organization." …

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06 May 2022, 23:11 p.m.

"How Do I Accommodate This Person?" Ask JAN

A couple years ago, through Ask a Manager comment threads (some links), I learned about the Job Accommodation Network which has a giant organized list of accommodations an employer could make, sorted "by disability, by …

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14 Apr 2022, 7:00 a.m.

Management/Software And Scifi Book Recommendations

In the last few days, two people have asked me for book recommendations. First: someone looking to use up an employer subsidy for books related to management and software engineering.VERY HIGH REC: Making Software: What …

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15 Dec 2021, 17:00 p.m.

A Tale Of Code Review Review

I was talking with Jacob as he was writing his blog post about "reverse" code review (asking a job candidate to review code you wrote), and told him a memory from early 2012, back when …

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30 Nov 2021, 10:14 a.m.

Sign Up Now For Free Maintainer Skills Workshops

Maintainers of open source projects often need help learning how to address issues such as "how do we recruit and promote project members?", "what do we spend our money on?", and "how do I finally …

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24 Nov 2021, 9:48 a.m.

Health Insurance & Retirement Plans For Open Source Maintainers

This is huge. The Open Collective Foundation has just announced: "OCF now offers employment options to initiative workers—with health insurance!" As that page says: "Initiatives fiscally hosted by OCF can have employees, with access to …

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03 Jul 2021, 16:45 p.m.

Researching The Leadership Gap for Legacy Projects

I've given a lot of conference talks recently. As part of the PyCon US Maintainers' Summit in May, I delivered an eight-minute talk, "Researching the leadership gap for legacy projects". The video is now available, …

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29 Apr 2021, 16:07 p.m.

Thinking About Safety And Competing Access Needs

I don't have much to say about this but this piece ("safe spaces and competing access needs") and this discussion ("Safe" isn't a monolith.) have been rolling around in my head a lot, and I …

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09 Apr 2021, 13:11 p.m.

If You Call Me A Thought Leader For This Post I Will Give You A Stern Look

In scifi/fantasy fandom there's this phrase, "Big Name Fan". This is someone who is well-known, influential, for the fannish things they say and do and make. The idea is that a BNF is a minor …

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