Professional Development Pathways: OpenMRS Stages
Our community brings together people with a wide variety of skill sets, all of which play an important role in making OpenMRS what it is today. Sharing knowledge and helping each other grow is central to our community. We use OpenMRS Stages in multiple knowledge areas to help individuals drive their own professional development - and help others lend a hand.
What are OpenMRS Stages?
Our OpenMRS Developer Stages are intended for all types of developers. This page includes an overview of the developer stages /dev/null through /dev/5 and describes how the community intends to use and update developer stage assignments.
Our OpenMRS Community Stages focus on community engagement, leadership, and capacity. This page gives you an overview of omrs stages /omrs/null to /omrs/5.
We are currently working to expand and update these two sets of stages. In addition, we're defining Quality Assurance stages and Product Management stages. Watch this Lightning Talk to learn more about these improvements and how they guide self-driven professional development.
If you would like to join us and improve our stages, please reach out to Jennifer Antilla.
Which stage am I (or someone else)?
Take a look at the OpenMRS Talk Badges page under "Developers" to find the badges /dev/null- /dev/5. You can click on any of these badges to see the list of users with that badge. Many developers also have entered their developer stage as their title in OpenMRS Talk preferences (click on your picture in the top right corner, select Preferences, and look for the "Title" preference to set yours.
How do I advance in OpenMRS Stages?
For Developer Stages, all n00bs begin as /dev/null (i.e., we don't expect to get a lot out of 'em 
). Advance from /dev/null to /dev/1 by earning badges as described on the /dev/null badge page.
We're working towards a relatively objective definition for stages that includes specific skills and expectations. Undoubtedly, this process will need to be refined over time and we appreciate your understanding as we discover bugs and work through in the process. In general, this overview should help give you the big picture of you or other devs belong in the spectrum of stages:
- /null can be anyone in the community.
- /1 is a learner. Someone discovering OpenMRS.
- /2 is contributing to the community (i.e., donating their time & skills to help the community).
- /3 is cooperating with others. While others may not depend on them or they may not depend on others, they are investing in the community in a way that takes the needs of others into consideration.
- /4 is collaborating. This is more than simply working with others. Collaborating implies interdependency – i.e., the developer is working closely with people from other teams, other organizations depend on their work, etc.
- /5 is a leader in the community, driving one or more aspect of OpenMRS' mission forward and demonstrating to others best practices for being a good OpenMRS citizen.
Who decides?
As mentioned earlier, community members should be able to go from /dev/null to /dev/1 on their own and reach /dev/2 based on objective merits. Beyond that, advancing people through stages is a manual process for the community. /dev/3s, /dev/4s, and /dev/5s meet periodically (2-3x/year) to review current staging assignments and adjust them. If you feel that you have earned a developer stage, then make sure a /dev/3, /dev/4, or /dev/5 knows about your interest in advancing stages as well as the steps you've taken that support your advancement. People are welcome to nominate themselves as well as others for advancement. Remember, developer stages are not just a measure of someone's development skills, but also a reflection of their engagement with the OpenMRS Development Community.
Do people get demoted (drop stages)?
This is still undecided and not formally defined. We are currently considering an "emeritus" status for members of the community who are no longer actively engaged in OpenMRS Development.