1.1. Outline

The Python programming language and its vibrant ecosystem have made software development more accessible and efficient than ever before, enabling a diverse community of users, from professional developers and researchers, to amateur programmers and enthusiasts, to promptly implement their novel ideas and share their valuable work with the world. In addition, the rise of comprehensive cloud-based services like GitHub has undeniably revolutionized the software development process, making it easier to collaborate on projects and share code, and streamlining the process of building, testing, documenting, deploying, and maintaining software.

Despite these significant advancements, the current landscape of Python software development is still not without its challenges. In addition to a unique and valuable idea and the ability to implement it into code, proper development, distribution, and maintenance of useful, credible and high-quality software packages is a complex and multi-faceted process, involving numerous steps and requiring a broad range of skills and expertise in various fields and subjects, including software engineering and development methodologies, project management, software development and release life cycles, DevOps, automation workflows, cloud operations, software security, testing frameworks, code quality assurance, graphic and web design, community management, user experience, marketing, and an up-to-date knowledge of the latest guidelines, standards, and best practices in the ecosystem.

Large and well-established organizations often have dedicated teams for each aspect of their project, who can work together to set up and maintain a professional and sustainable product. However, for smaller teams or individual developers, who may not have the necessary resources or expertise to cover all related aspects, these challenges can act as significant barriers that render the goal of rapid development, publishing, and maintenance of professional and effective software a non-trivial task, inadvertently hampering innovation and growth within the diverse Python community.

While being crucial for the ultimate success of every software project, many aspects of the development process are not directly related to the idea and vision behind the project itself, and are rather repetitive, time-consuming and tedious chores that can be automated and streamlined to save time and effort for the development team, allowing them to solely focus on the creative aspects of their work.

Although several tools and resources are available to help developers with some of the involved tasks in isolation, to the best of our knowledge, there is currently no comprehensive solution that can seamlessly automate and streamline the entire process. Therefore, developers still need to have a broad understanding of the various aspects involved, to know which tools to use and how to configure them correctly, and spend a significant amount of time and effort to find the right combination of tools and services, only to be able to cover a small subset of the requirements.

To address these challenges, we introduce PyPackIT, a fully automated, plug and play, professional software project management solution for open-source Python packages on GitHub. It provides a comprehensive, professional, and robust infrastructure for all main components of a project, including GitHub/Git repository, Python package, test suite, and documentation website, according to the latest standards and best practices. PyPackIT is a free and open-source software built on top of GitHub Actions, and offered as a GitHub repository template that can be readily utilized by new and existing projects. It comes with an exhaustive set of fully-configured continuous integration, deployment, and testing (CI/CD/CT) workflows that automate and streamline the entire journey of creating, documenting, testing, publishing, and maintaining Python packages, and render the entire project fully dynamic. By eliminating all the tedious, repetitive, and time-consuming peripheral aspects of the software development process, PyPackIT enables aspiring and experienced developers alike to rapidly build professional software, readily share them with the world, and effortlessly maintain their projects, thereby empowering the development of open-source Python projects, and fueling innovation and growth in the ecosystem.