From zero to ATC

= From zero to OpenStack Active Technical Contributor (ATC) =

Pre-requisite things to know

 * How OpenStack is made
 * Release cycle
 * How to identify people relevant in OpenStack development FIXME
 * Technical Committee
 * The ecosystem of OpenStack projects ecosystem: rules for new projects and how to add projects to Stackforge and the TODO projects page on the official Governance site.
 * Design summits
 * IRC meetings
 * Workflow of an OpenStack contribution and tools
 * devstack
 * How to contribute wiki page
 * gerrit workflow
 * Branching model FIXME
 * Reviewing code
 * Starting a new change
 * The Contribution Process

Get started
(checklist style, with links to proper documentation)

Get an account on Launchpad.net Get an account on OpenStack.org

Pick the project you want to work on. It's better to start from smaller projects and avoid the huge ones: Nova and Neutron are not good places to start because of their complexity. Smaller and leaner projects like Keystone, Designate, Zaqar, Swift, Documentation are a lot better.

Scroll the list of bugs tagged low-hanging-fruit


 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/swift/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-swiftclient/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-keystoneclient/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/keystone/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/openstack-manuals/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/zaqar/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-zaqarclient/+bugs?field.tag=low-hanging-fruit
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/designate/+bugs [FIXME: designate has no low-hanging-fruit tag]

... etc

Find a bug that seems interesting to you and is simple for you to fix: don't venture into complicated bugs just yet as the process to get things working is already complex enough.

Find when the project has its weekly IRC meeting and schedule for you to attend it regularly. Hop on the IRC channel of the project and announce your intention to fix the bug. Assign the bug to yourself on Launchpad. Keep hanging out on IRC, make your IRC client an application that starts by default every time you log into your machine.

Get an account on Review.openstack.org

Visit https://review.openstack.org/ and click the Sign In link at the top-right corner of the page. Log in with your Launchpad ID.

Sign the Individual CLA (and have your employer sign the Corporate CLA, if needed)



Setup your development environment

Each project should publish this info to docs.openstack.org (http://docs.openstack.org/developer//devref/development.environment.html For example: http://docs.openstack.org/developer/zaqar/devref/development.environment.html