---
title: 'Maintaining Open Source Projects: Documentation'
teaser: We're pleased to announce a new chapter on documentation in our Maintaining
  Open Source Projects book.
tags: news,open source,books
author: Tute Costa
published_on: 2015-04-24
---

We just released a new chapter of the [_Maintaining Open Source
Projects_][landing] book: "Documentation".

The new chapter describes the different documents that make up a good project
that will attract a successful community: what content should be described,
where it should be published, how it should be built, and how to make it
discoverable and useful to users and maintainers alike.

_Maintaining Open Source Projects_ is useful for you if you want to learn the
soft skills needed to grow and maintain a software project following open source
practices. It covers topics such as shaping the community, promoting your
library, keeping good communication with many different people, deciding when to
release new versions, and prioritizing all of the above.

This book is useful even outside of open source. For example, as a software
company you can embrace the practices that for years have encouraged thorough
code reviews, forthright communication, and efficient collaboration. The book is
built following the very same practices it describes, so you get access to its
GitHub repository, commits, discussions, etc.

Like our other beta books, this is a work in progress. You may find errors, but
you'll also be able to ask questions and help shape the book's development.
You'll get a $10 discount on the final price, and regular updates as we write
more chapters.

Download a [free sample][sample], and if you like it [you may buy the beta
version at a 25% discount][landing]. Enjoy!

[landing]: http://maintaining-open-source.com?utm_source=giant-robots&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=new-chapter
[sample]: http://thoughtbot.com/maintaining-open-source-projects-sample.pdf