Create a standalone page for Contributing

[frankieroberto]

Currently we have an About page which contains some information about contributing.

I think it might be worth having a standalone page for it, which could then go into a few more details?

It could mention that you could either contribute to the kit itself or the guidance.

It could suggest that both opening issues and pull requests are both valid ways to contribute.

Could briefly say that you'd need a GitHub account, but these are free.

Could mention some more technical stuff for more experienced contributors:

• code style
• running/writing tests
• browsers etc to test on

Could also mention the open source licence and that we'd give credit and thanks in release notes.

[vickytnz]

As a starting point I've started writing some things - I'd like to maybe workshop this a bit with a wider group before we put it into code.

My brief is:

• explain the value of contributing
• show that this is community led and in the open
• show that there are different types of contributions right now (and some that we want to do but aren't quite ready)
• explain the ways people can contribute right now and show through the backlog stuff that we're thinking about (this is also a way to incentivise discipline on labelling tickets)
• have light such contribution options to both let those that are confident with tech go for it but just triage everyone else to the right support channels to get help to start

@frankieroberto @edwardhorsford @sarawilcox @anandamaryon1 just letting you know this is here as a start - I don't quite want to put it into code yet as it's so content heavy (i can get that someone might just want to draft in word etc).

Looks like it's possible for other people to edit this comment so if you want you can edit and copy the code to do a build - or even build a page proper for review?

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Contribute to the NHS prototype kit

The NHS prototype kit is a community project supported by the NHS service manual team. Anyone can help make it better.

You can view what the community is working on from our open project board on Github - if you cannot see this board then contact the service manual team and they will tell you.

Community work on the kit and its website are tracked on one shared project board but the code ('code repositories') is in different places - you can view the code for the kit on the nhsuk-prototype-kit code repository and the guidance on the nhsuk.service-manual.prototype-kit.docs code repository

Why contribute to the kit

If you contribute to the kit:

• this keeps it up-to-date as an accessible and open way to make HTML prototypes of NHS services
• you will become part of an active and supportive community that will help you learn and develop your skills with the kit
• we will credit you in our update notes and other supporting information unless you tell us not to (for example, because you want to stay anonymous)

If you are employed by NHS England, you will usually be able to use examples of contributing to the kit as part of your yearly performance review - talk to your line manager about how to include it in your performance objectives.

How you can contribute to the kit

There are many different ways that you can contribute, depending on your skill and interests. You do not have to be an expert in coding.

Right now you can:

• add or improve documentation for people using the kit
• do quality assurance or accessibility testing of new features or guidance
• fix bugs or build new features for the NHS prototype kit
• improve the contribution process

Soon you will also be able to:

• take part in user research on using the kit (labelled user research in the project board)
• help do user research on the kit
• help to run training sessions to install and build a basic prototype
• help us improve the process of contributing to the kit

We will update this page when we are ready to have these types of contributions. If you are interested in helping us start doing these contributions, contact the service manual team

Add or improve documentation for people using the kit

You can also help improve the guidance for:

• this document site
• the pages that people view when they download and install the kit

This includes: writing to the NHS content guide (and standardising terms that we only use in the kit) and making the structure of the site easy to use.

Existing things we want to do for guidance are labelled 'documentation' on our project board on on the lists of things we want to do for the kit. You can also add your own.

Do quality assurance or accessibility testing

You can make sure that the code in our kit is robust and accessible by:

• running automated and manual tests against WCAG 2.2 AA specifications
• helping us set up pipelines for automated testing in Github

Accessibility issues are labelled 'accessibility' on our project board on on the lists of things we want to do for the kit. You can also add your own.

Fix bugs or build new features ('enhancements') for the NHS prototype kit

You can help:

• fix bugs in the kit
• add features that have been added to NHS Frontend and the NHS design system but are not in the kit yet
• add functionality that is not yet in the NHS prototype kit but is in other prototype kits - for example is in the GOV.UK Prototype kit
• build features that make it easier to use the NHS prototype kit

Existing things we want to do for new features are labelled 'bug' or Enhancement : feature request’' on our project board on on the lists of things we want to do for the kit. There are also labels for Javascript, Nunjucks or SASS / CSS .

You can also add your own bugs or ideas for features.

Improve the contribution process

We want to make the process of contributing as easy and as accessible as possible. Existing things we want to do to improve the contribution process are labelled 'Contribution'. You can also add your own.

Get started with a contribution

If you are confident with code you can create issues with Github.

The team and wider community usually review new issues at least once a week and will add comments about what will happen next.

If you need more support or have questions, you can contact the service manual team or use the slack channel. We have weekly alignment meetings on a Monday afternoon at 4pm which are optional but helpful if you want to check with a person - ask the service manual team for an invite.

[vickytnz]

Added contribution page as a light touch version of the Service Manual pages.

This pull request includes:

• the page
• a link in the footer (for now)

[sarawilcox]

I think this is very good @vickytnz and @frankieroberto . I've made some content changes to the branch - https://github.com/nhsuk/nhsuk.service-manual.prototype-kit.docs/tree/92-create-a-standalone-page-for-contributing. Mostly just cutting it back a bit.

[vickytnz]

Excellent - going to merge now :)