Rationale

Git is a great value-add for many organisations - take a look here if you need some convincing.

Here's a couple more points where we feel this Git(hub) protocol will add value for Nesta (in alphabetical order):

Accountability

Github issues let us know who is responsible for/owns which aspects of a project. Git blame provides context and a point of contact for a piece of code we might not understand but want to build on.

Centrality provides discoverability

Centralisation of designs, documentation, code, etc. allows others in Nesta to easily discover and access both previous and current work - this helps us avoid knowledge silos!

Impact

Open data/code are a form of impact and allow other organisations to build on our work.

Organisational memory

Assets are not lost in the ether when someone leaves. Furthermore, managing projects alongside the code we maintain a record of decisions - “why did we do it this way?”, “what was the issue with dataset X?” - of things which may not be obvious months/years down the line.

Peer learning

The possibility of code-review allows us to learn from one-another.

Quality assurance

Code-review provides quality checks (and helps diffuse knowledge more widely in the organisation).

Reproducibility

Can you revisit the figure you gave a stakeholder last Tuesday before you changed the code?

Reusability

Easy re-use of code already written. More re-use means less time testing, debugging, and writing documentation.