Add a CONTRIBUTING.md file to the repo root.

[robfalck]

Summary of Issue

Add a CONTRIBUTING.md file to the repo root.

Issue Type

• [ ] Bug
• [ ] Enhancement
• [x] Misc

Description

CONTRIBUTING.md should guide users on how to interact with the development team, and explain how to ask questions via stackoverflow, how to post issues here, the POEM process, and code style guidelines. Below is a proposed template for the file.

Contributing to OpenMDAO

We welcome feedback from the user community. This document is intended to help guide users on best practices for becoming involved with OpenMDAO.

Contents

• Questions about OpenMDAO
• Reporting bugs
• Proposing new features
• Submitting pull requests
• License

Questions about OpenMDAO

We encourage questions regarding OpenMDAO to be asked on stackoverflow.com with the OpenMDAO tag. The developer team monitors the OpenMDAO tag at stackoverflow fairly closely, so this is the best way to get timely feedback.

Reporting Bugs

How to report bugs, best practices for doing so...

Proposing New Features

Describe the POEM system...

Submitting Pull Requests

Describe how to submit pull requests for an existing issue. I the PR addresses a bug that isn't an issue, an issue should be created first. If the PR adds a feature, it should go through the POEM process first.

Describe basic coding standards.

License

By contributing code to OpenMDAO, you agree to make anything contributed to the repository available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

[robfalck]

Closing/reopening to test issue automation.