Contributing

Thank you for your interest in improving the RTP Competency Framework. There are two paths depending on your technical comfort level — expand either below to get started.

Creating an issue is the simplest way to suggest changes, report errors, or propose additions to the competency framework.

Steps
1 Navigate to the GitHub repository for this project.
2 Click on the Issues tab near the top of the page.
3 Click the green "New issue" button.
4 Fill in the Title (brief summary) and Description — include which competency you're referring to, what change you're suggesting, why it would be beneficial, and any relevant references.
5 Click "Submit new issue" when you're done.
Example Issue
Title: Suggest additional skills for Cloud Infrastructure competency

Description:
I would like to suggest adding "Kubernetes administration" as a skill under the
Cloud Infrastructure competency at the Senior level.

This would be valuable because more research environments are adopting
containerisation for reproducible research, and Kubernetes skills are increasingly
needed for managing these environments.

Reference: [insert link or page reference]

If you are comfortable with Git and GitHub, you can directly propose changes by creating a pull request.

Prerequisites
A GitHub account
Git installed on your computer
Basic understanding of YAML formatting
Steps
1 Fork the repository by clicking the "Fork" button at the top right of the repository page.
2 Clone your fork to your local machine. 
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/sde-skills.git
cd sde-skills
3 Create a new branch for your changes. 
git checkout -b your-branch-name
4 Edit the relevant YAML files in yaml/ using any text editor.
5 Stage and commit your changes. 
git add .
git commit -m "Brief description of your changes"
6 Push your changes to your fork. 
git push origin your-branch-name
7 Open a Pull Request — go to the original repository, click Pull Requests → New Pull Request → compare across forks, select your fork and branch, then fill in the details.
Guidelines for Contributions
1 Be specific — Reference the exact competency or section you are addressing.
2 Provide rationale — Explain why the change would be beneficial.
3 Include references — Cite industry standards, academic papers, or other relevant sources.
4 Use clear language — Write in plain, accessible language for all readers.
5 Follow existing format — Match the structure and style of existing documents when editing directly.
Getting Help
For technical help with Git or GitHub, refer to GitHub's documentation.
For questions about the framework itself, open an issue with the "question" label.