

An imperfect solution is to provide a CONTRIBUTING file that shows a notice when you open a PR on GitHub. The onboarding problem is particularly tricky for OSS projects in which contributors rarely have a process of onboarding. UPDATE there is a follow-up here, see what lessons I learned in the year since I’ve started committing the IDE project settings to VCS. When new developers are added to the team, be it remote, or joining on the desk next to you, there is always the problem of onboarding them.

That could be a work team that sits in the same room (or building), a couple of friends that have big ideas and work on the next big thing, or the community of contributors to an open source project.

Cover image: “Flying to the universe” by Edoardo Brotto - on flickrĮven though the stereotype goes against that, developers tend to be social creatures - at least to the extent of (having to?) work in a team.
