I’ve abandoned 100s of projects over 20+ years. Even worse, I’ve let plenty of projects just rot and go stale. However, I want to do this in a muc

How to properly archive a project

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2021-07-08 10:30:09

I’ve abandoned 100s of projects over 20+ years. Even worse, I’ve let plenty of projects just rot and go stale. However, I want to do this in a much better way going forward — I want to actually say “I’m stopping this now, and I’m archiving it properly”.

The suggestions below assume that you document the answers to these questions — in the project README, on your wiki, or somewhere else where it’s easily seen by all.

NB: I deliberately chose the word “technologist” because I wanted to include developers, architects, security, operations, and many other roles.

If you do anything from this article, document what was learned. Have a wash-up meeting, make sure people acknowledge the learning points, and have them to hand for the future.

Don’t just leave that Git repository to rot. Archive the project using the checklist above to help yourself, help others, and help those that come after you.