Agreeing on contribution before the project starts

Why bother

Most team projects fall apart not over technical difficulty but over unspoken expectations. One assumed everyone was putting in equal effort. Another thought they were helping as capacity allowed. A month later both are aggrieved.

Half an hour at the start removes almost all of that.

What to settle

How many hours a week each person has. The most important item. Say it honestly and round down: promising twenty and delivering five is worse than saying five up front.

Unequal contributions are fine. What isn't fine is not having agreed them.

Who owns what. Specifically, not "we'll help each other".

What counts as finished. One sentence. Without it a project never ends.

By when. A target, not a commitment. But said out loud.

What happens if someone disappears. The most awkward item and the most necessary. Agree in advance: if someone is out of contact for two weeks, the rest continue without them, and what they built stays theirs. Then vanishing doesn't become a drama.

Who owns the result. For a learning project, "the code is open and everyone may show it as their portfolio" is usually enough. But say it — especially if the project might become something bigger.

How to write it down

Not as a contract, but as an ordinary one-page note everyone can see. Five points, one sentence each.

Formality isn't the goal. Shared memory is: two months later nobody recalls what was agreed over coffee.

About money

If there's no money, say plainly that there won't be. Phrases like "we'll split it when it takes off" damage relationships more reliably than anything: some hear a promise, others a figure of speech.

If money is expected, agree it before work begins and in writing. This is the case where an awkward conversation at the start beats a falling-out at the end.

About credit

Settle separately how each person's contribution will be recorded. For a project built for the experience, that's the main currency — and it's odd to leave it to "we'll sort it out later".

What works: at the end, the project owner describes in their own words what each participant did. It's fair to the people who worked, and far more convincing than "participated in development" written by the participant about themselves.