Universal Project Folder Structure

I have many projects. Some are research, some are code, some are physical DIYs, and some are pure documentation. Most projects start small but quickly grow into a mess, if I do not enforce a clean structure on them. What if we could organize most projects with a similar folder structure, such that it is easy for you and for others to navigate the folders and understand where each file belongs?

Here is my proposal for a folder structure that can be applied on almost all your file-based coding projects:

project-name/ 
│  
├─ build/         the final generated product  
├─ docs/          description of the product  
├─ lib/           external dependencies maintained elsewhere
├─ make/          toolchain for making the product  
│  ├─ config/  
│  └─ tools/  
├─ res/           static resources like images/audio  
│  ├─ img/  
│  │  └─ dia/  
│  └─ css/  
├─ src/           blueprint of the product**,** e.g. code  
├─ test/          quality assurance of the product  
├─ tmp/           ALL temporary generated files  
│  ├─ objs/  
│  └─ logs/  
├─ xtra/          extra files not belonging elsewhere  
├─ Makefile       Trigger for setup/build/install  
└─ README.md      Information entry point

Features — Why should you use this?

• most important user folders (build, docs) are sorted to the top. (you could also rename build to app or bin)
• least important folders (tmp, extra) are sorted to the bottom.
• clear separation of dynamic files (src) and static files (res, lib)
• clear separation of own code (src) and foreign code (lib)
• one folder for all temporary files with a descriptive name. Everyone will know that files in tmp can be deleted any time.
• names reflect categories and not specific formats (e.g. img not jpg/png, make not cmake/waf)
• names start with a different letter which makes keyboard navigation fast (except for tmp)
• names are short, which keeps overall path lengths short
• names are common and should be intuitive for most developers