Need a new primary maintainer

[kilasuit]

Firstly, I wanna apologise if this issue and it's content upsets you, it is not my intent to do so, but I am adding these details for a number of reasons.

Secondly, I requested this repo initally as part of a project that I had planned in which it was to be able to build a presentation for PSConfEU 2022, on how to build a HQRM (High Quality Resource Module) which I was accepted for & then unfortunately other things happened.

At the time I put forward a project proposal to the SLT at Black Marble, who I was employed with at the time which perhaps @rfennell the current CTO, could dig out if it hasn't been deleted, I did so for a few reasons,

• my own mental health at the time
  • I needed a new project that wasn't existing community stuff or org requested stuff, internally or externally
  • I was bored & severly depressed & stressed, and throughout 2020-2022, having an unfortunate bout of suicidal thoughts, which I have suffered with previously anyway, the combination of things, mostly workload & isolation was a big part of that & I think many of us were struggling in different ways around that time.
• I understood that both Black Marble & the wider DSC Community would greatly benefit from having a DSC Resource module for Azure DevOps
• I also understood just how complex of a project it would be, and this really excited me as there was potential for Black Marble to be one of the main testers, not requiring me to have the access for any internal/external Azure DevOps instances (Server or Services)
  • Hence, I submitted a session about this repo for PSConfEU & an internal (at the time) project proposal, if that had been externalised, then I think this project would have had a better upramp at the time.

Unfortunately, I then lost my dad to cancer within 6 weeks, and I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of the project, or the presentation at PSConfEU as I'd had so little time to actually get down and coding so I reluctuntly pulled out of it, which was both the best and worst thing to do as I had been looking forward to seeing all at PSConfEU that year.

I lost the passion for this project a long time ago, and now I don't have the time or energy to be it's lead maintainer anymore, especially as I'm now not working but instead have decided that Off To Uni I Go & whilst I wasnt't Quite Ready for Uni in September 2025, I'm gonna hit the ground running with it in Jan 2026.

I do want to thank @SphenicPaul for all the work that they put in, which ultiimately built the repository, because I only made this single commit

As such, I would like the DSC Community to find a new lead maintainer, because I cannot at this time, give this project the energy it needs to carry it on further.

[SphenicPaul]

No worries. Health and well-being, and self-focus should always be the priority… you focus on that, typically better things come out for/from you in other places. Sometimes just cutting down/out the distractions and energy sinks (projects/people/places) can give you renewed passion/invigoration/energy elsewhere, or the time/space to focus on the important stuff, like yourself - I know I’ve found that myself.

Back to this project, just to clarify, whilst I still do use both Azure DevOps and PowerShell in my day-to-day, I’ve steered down the Terraform provider/technology route over PowerShell DSC, so, as a result, I’ve less of an incentive to use/support/maintain this repository/project myself.

My initial efforts were with the aim of jump-starting this project, as I could really see the benefit of such a resource (especially for management/maintenance of much larger, Azure DevOps instances, where manual tasks around user/team/group/RBAC management, and applying/enforcing specific policy and governance across multiple Orgs and Projects become slow/cumbersome/costly at scale).

I suspect there are a number of items in my initial commits that I’d do differently now, and I’m not precious about any of the approaches taken, and/or if a new owner/maintainer wants to take this project in a completely different style/route/direction. I also suspect a lot of the AI tooling available now could scaffold out a lot of the DSC resources out more quickly/robustly.

Just a final note. If you (@kilasuit) are looking to find focuses/outlets for your time/effort, it was actually yourself giving a talk at a “SQL Saturday” event in Manchester that got me into PowerShell. To this day, it is still a staple/core part of my technology/skills arsenal, so please continue with those where/when you can - That 1 hour talk has given me a lot of benefit/value.

Purpose, value and well-being can often come along for the ride together. Happy Christmas.