a_philosophy_of_project_governance_drew_devault_s_blog.html

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19<h1 class="title">A philosophy of project governance | Drew DeVault’s Blog</h1>
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21I’ve been in the maintainer role for dozens of projects for a while now, and have
22moderated my fair share of conflicts. I’ve also been on the other side, many times, as a
23minor contributor watching or participating in conflict within other projects. Over the
24years, I’ve developed an approach to project governance which I believe is lightweight,
25effective, and inclusive.
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29I hold the following axioms to be true:
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31
32<ul class="org-ul">
33<li>Computer projects are organized by humans, creating a social system.</li>
34<li>Social systems are fundamentally different from computer systems.</li>
35<li>Objective rules cannot be programmed into a social system.</li>
36</ul>
37
38<p>
39And the following is true of individuals within those systems:
40</p>
41
42<ul class="org-ul">
43<li>Project leadership is in a position to do anything they want.</li>
44<li>Project leadership will ultimately do whatever they want, even if they have to come up
45with an interpretation of the rules which justifies it.</li>
46<li>Individual contributors who have a dissonant world-view from project leadership will
47never be welcome under those leaders.</li>
48</ul>
49
50<p>
51Any effective project governance model has to acknowledge these truths. To this end, the
52simplest effective project governance model is a BDFL, which scales a lot further than
53people might expect.
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