Building Open Leadership Toolsets (BOLT)

BOLT is an intensive workshop that equips participants with the skills and knowledge needed to lead open source software projects. The program addresses the unique challenges of working with clients, managing development teams, fostering inclusive open source communities, and balancing technical excellence with sustainable project governance. Participants learn practical strategies for code review, community building, conflict resolution, and project roadmap development, while gaining hands-on experience with the tools and workflows that successful open source maintainers use daily.

BOLT is offered before the start of each semester, ensuring that new graduate student Tech Leads are fully prepared to guide their teams from day one. Each Tech Lead is matched with a product and becomes its open source maintainer. Over two intensive weeks, participants build a complete leadership toolkit: contributor guidelines, sprint plans, communication playbooks, and the interpersonal skills that determine project success.

See Workshop Content for what the workshop covers, Participate for how to join, and Dates and Timeline for upcoming and past sessions.

Questions? Contact us at oss@slu.edu.