Contributing

Please note we have a code of conduct that applies to all interactions with the project.

The GovStack community understands that there are a wide variety of people from different backgrounds that have valuable insight into the work GovStack is doing. Therefore, we provide multiple ways in which people from those different backgrounds can interact and give us their insight. Here are three:

1. Proposing changes via the Give Feedback form

To ensure giving feedback on the specifications is as accesible as possible to the widest audience, we have created an online form that will take your feeback and direct it to the right people within the project automatically.

1. In the navigation menu above, click the Give Feedback link

2. Enter your contact details so that people in the project can follow up with further questions on your feedback

3. Note that the page you were browsing has already been entered into the form on your behalf. If this is not the page on which your feedback is relevant, please edit the link as needed

4. Please give your feedback, remembering to describe the problem as you see it, giving one or more alternative suggestions if you have them, and desccribe why the change is required

5. On submission, the form will reply with a link to a Jira issue we have automatically created on your behalf. This is where the GovStack project team will work on the feedback. You are welcome and encouraged to register and participate in the discussion in the comments.

2. Proposing changes via a pull request

Some members of the community will have experience using git to directly interact with specification content and you may do so with the following process.

Note that the content in the GovStack specifications follows the Markdown standards applied by the GitBook tool.

1. Check our issue queue first to see if anyone else has already reported this issue.

2. Create a new issue and tell us about the problem that you see.

3. The maintainer of this section will be alerted and work with you to decide what changes should be made

4. If invited to do so, create a pull request in the appropriate GovStack GitHub repository, including the issue number and short description in the pull request title, for example: {Jira issue number} - {short description of the change}- an example would be gov-001 - Adding contribution information. Note that pull requests that do not mention an associated issue number will not be alerted to our maintainers

5. Once the issue describes the reason for a change and links to the change you propose, a maintainer for that building block is alerted

6. The maintainer will work with you to ensure that the change meets our standards for inclusion

7. We value all contributions to the project and, even if the change is not accepted, we always strive to give feedback that helps you understand the decisions taken.