A Beginner's Guide to Contributing

March 19, 2024

I'm sure you know already, but in case you don't, I'm a frontend engineer for the OpenMRS Global Product Support Team. Here are a few tips based on what I did when I first joined almost a year ago. This is merely me walking you through how I did it, and hope it helps you too.

1. Start with the Right Mindset

Read the docs!

• Don't just skim, try to understand it.
• It's okay to not understand everything; some things may seem complex at first, mark those things and read them later.
• Be smart enough to categorize content as to what you may need now, as a beginner.
• The objective isn't to have read all the docs and know everything that you need to know; it's to know only what you need to know at that time. Small steps.
• Don't try to complete every single tutorial and guide that's out there. Pick and choose; be wise with your time and memory. You can only retain so much information at one time. Knowledge grows incrementally.

Be resourceful

• Don't depend on someone to hand you tickets or teach something to you.
• Find information that you need by yourself; you have all the tools you need to do it.
• Read and learn first, ask later. Before asking someone to clarify something, look for it yourself; read stuff that already exists about it; ask AI to explain it to you.
• When someone clarifies something to you, take the time to read it and understand it. If someone took the time to explain something to you, that means they thought you were valuable enough to spend the time explaining it; don't take it for granted.

Make your impact matter

• It's not about the amount of tickets you completed or the number of PRs you made, it's about the impact of those contributions.
• When you can (which might not be exactly when you start out), pick the work that has a high impact.
• It's not just about the impact of your code/solutions, it's also about the impact you leave as a person.
• Be a person that's easy and enjoyable to work with. Leave a lasting mark. Work in a way that people remember you for your work, even after you're gone.
• Doing that is a combination of your work ethic and your interpersonal skills. Don't annoy people and regularly ping them for menial things, be independent and reliable.

2. Learning the System

Familiarize yourself with the system

• Play around with the system and try to understand its features.
• Follow along with guides/tutorials to familiarize yourself with the codebase.

Don't be afraid of jumping into new code

• If you are starting out on a complex codebase, it's always good to look for a simple intro good-first-issue ticket. This way you'll find yourself familiarizing with the system with the addition of feeling accomplished with having completed an actual task.
• Don't immediately jump to complex tickets when you've just done an intro ticket. Increase the complexity incrementally so that you keep learning and you're not stagnant. It's great to be confident that you can take it up, and with the help of AI, you probably could, but can you do it well, and in a way that you actually understand what you did?
• If someone says that maybe that ticket is too complex for you, don't take it personally, they probably have a reason to do that. In that case, don't fight for it, talk about how you planned to do it, maybe you did have it figured out, and ask if that is the correct way, and maybe you'll do it anyway.

3. Contributing Effectively

Pick up issues/find where to contribute

• This is what everyone tends to be eager to jump to, skipping steps one or two, because sometimes finding something to code is easier than actually understanding what you need to do.
• Contributing to docs is contribution too, and is an extremely valuable contribution. While reading the docs, if you found something missing, or thought hmm, maybe this would be better structured this way, it probably is, and you'd be helping someone who'll be in your shoes one day, and who knows maybe it'll help you one day again too.
• If looking at a ticket, you know what to do, and where to do it, with minimal guidance, you're probably ready to take it up.
• In case you don't, it's okay to ask for help, but before you do, put some effort into trying to find it out for yourself. Self-learning is a much better teacher than anyone else.
• Look for similar implementations for guidance, but question it. Even though it's good to stick to a standard, that standard may be outdated. Learn to question why, but not for the purpose of critiquing it, but for the purpose of understanding it.

Review other people's code

• Be kind, respectful and suggest genuine improvements and not a review for the sake of a review. e.g. - if all your reviews are reviews that say hey your PR title is wrong, and you have a typo here, you're probably not doing it for the right reasons.
• Don't review to criticize, review to learn
  • Review the PRs that you don't understand to learn from them. Read the discussions. Observe and absorb.

4. Communication and Collaboration

Learn to communicate efficiently and asynchronously

• Give as much context as possible but stay to the point.
• Don't say "hey" and "hi" and wait for a reply; ask your question in a way that is clear to the person on how to answer; be specific. You'll most likely be working in different time zones, so learn to communicate in a way that by the time the recipient gets the time to reply, it's something that will answer your question without requiring a lot of back and forth.
• Try to communicate in public channels; you'll probably get more input that way, and other people will learn from it too. Plus point, people will start noticing you.
• Meetings can be very time-consuming. I know people who have so many meetings in a day that it's really hard to find a time slot.
• Think if you really need to request a meeting. If you have a question, send them a message explaining what you would like clarified, what doubts you have, and why you don't understand it before asking for a meeting. Most of the time, while you are typing it out, you'll realize a meeting wasn't necessary anyway.
• Asynchronous communication over meetings has the added advantage of you being able to have that as a resource that you can easily access and comprehend later on. Reading it would be far easier than watching a video recording and skipping it to find exactly what you need.

Be respectful and mindful of other people's time

• Remember, it's teamwork. While everyone has their own priorities, it's important to remember that you are working on a common goal, and that means that sometimes you have to put aside something that's a high priority to you.
• Don't rush others just to complete your task. If you are dependent on someone else, communicate nicely and respectfully that you are blocked by so and so, and that you need it done by whenever (only if there is a specific deadline) and if they have a possible timeline on when they'll be done.