Internship
Student login
← Design Systems learning path
Design Systems · Module 9 of 10

Governance and contribution

A design system needs owners, a process and versioning.

📖 Key ideas

  1. A core team owns the system; product teams contribute.
  2. Contribution process: propose, review, build, document, release.
  3. Semantic versioning signals breaking changes.
  4. Deprecate old components with a timeline before removing them.
  5. Track adoption: which teams use which components.
💡 Real-life example: Like a school syllabus committee: teachers can suggest changes, the committee reviews, and the new syllabus starts next term.
GovernanceRules for how the system changes
ContributionAdding to the system from a product team
DeprecationMarking something for future removal
Breaking changeChange that needs users to update their code