docs: Resolves hyperledger-cacti#17 with CONTRIBUTING.MD (hyperledger…

…-cacti#92)

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Hamilton <[email protected]>

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+Thank you for your interest to contribute to BIF! :tada:
+
+First things first, please review the [Hyperledger Code of Conduct](https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/HYP/Hyperledger+Code+of+Conduct) before participating. 
+
+There are many ways to contibute to BIF, both as a user and as a developer.
+
+As a user, this can inlcude:
+* [Making Feature/Enhancement Proposals](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement&template=feature_request.md&title=)
+* [Reporting bugs](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/issues/new?assignees=&labels=bug&template=bug_report.md&title=)
+
+As a developer:
+* if you only have a little time, consider picking up a [“help-wanted”](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/labels/help%20wanted) or ["good-first-issue"](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/labels/good%20first%20issue) task
+* If you can commit to full-time development, then please contact us on our [Rocketchat channel](https://chat.hyperledger.org/channel/blockchain-integration-framework) to work through logistics!
+
+
+### Completing a PR
+
+To protect the BIF source code, Blockchain Integration Framework GitHub pull requests are accepted from forked repositories only. There are also quality standards identified and documented here that will be enhanced over time. 
+
+
+1. Fork BIF via Github UI
+1. Clone the fork to your local machine
+1. Complete the desired changes and where possible test locally (more detail to come here)
+1. Commit your changes
+    1. Make sure you sign your commit using `git commit -s` for more information see [here](https://gist.github.com/tkuhrt/10211ae0a26a91a8c030d00344f7d11b)
+    1. Make sure your commit message follows [Conventional Commits syntax](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0-beta.4/#specification); this aids in release notes generation
+1. Push your changes to your master
+1. Initiate a pull request from your fork to the base repository
+1. Await CI, DCO & linting quality checks, as well as any feedback from reviewers

README.md

@@ -56,24 +56,15 @@ Blockchain Integration Framework introduces an “interoperability validator”
 - Implement confidential communication within the overlay network. The validator network should match the confidentiality setup of the local ledger
 - Replace current signature scheme by BLS to optimize the proof size (Hyperledger Ursa is a lead)
 
+_Note that BIF follows Semantic Versioning and as the software is pre-1.0, [backwards compatibility is not guaranteed between versions](https://semver.org/#spec-item-4)_
+
 ## Contact
 We welcome your questions & feedback on our [Rocketchat channel](https://chat.hyperledger.org/channel/blockchain-integration-framework).
 
 ## Contributing
 We welcome contributions to BIF in many forms, and there’s always plenty to do!
 
-First things first, please review the [Hyperledger Code of Conduct](https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/HYP/Hyperledger+Code+of+Conduct) before participating. 
-
-There are many ways to contibute to BIF, both as a user and as a developer.
-
-As a user, this can inlcude:
-* [Making Feature/Enhancement Proposals](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement&template=feature_request.md&title=)
-* [Reporting bugs](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/issues/new?assignees=&labels=bug&template=bug_report.md&title=)
-
-As a developer:
-* if you only have a little time, consider picking up a [“help-wanted”](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/labels/help%20wanted) or ["good-first-issue"](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/blockchain-integration-framework/labels/good%20first%20issue) task
-* If you can commit to full-time development, then please contact us on our [Rocketchat channel](https://chat.hyperledger.org/channel/blockchain-integration-framework) to work through logistics!
-
+Please review [contributing](/CONTRIBUTING.md) guidelines to get started.
 
 ## Initial Committers