Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to an excellent presentation on OpenSoruce Software development by Adam Michelson. Adam is an architect who works for Optaros. He helped us understand terms like committers (people who volunteer to maintain the code) and repositories such as sourceforge.net that make code available and provide a way to maintain it. After listening to him, I thought that I should highlight the following:
OpenSource development is strategic to many enterprises today that build systems using opensource software. A key rationale that is being used to make this decision is the fact that the code is free. While this is a good criterion to use for deciding if the system under consideration is generic like a webserver or application server. However, if this code is critical to the enterprise, they have to consider things like – is it OK for the competition to have access to the same code base? What if developers from the competitor are the key committers to your project? Should you throw your existing code base into opensource and have the community maintain it (sounds like a type of outsourcing)?
OpenSource is a methodology that should be used to develop software within a company. This means that each component selection should not be a one-off decision. Organizations should put in place routines to qualify opensource components, access them and track usage and do version control. This way they can answer questions from senior management about risks such as those that come from competitors or lack of commitment from the community.
OpenSource requires new skills for influencing the process of software development. Since the code is changed by members of the community, how do you get the community to focus on your projects? Does the organization have access to influential people within the community? Do they have people within your organization that are aware of what’s out there in terms of components? Can these components work together with minimal efforts to coordinate the linkages?
OpenSource is here to stay given that companies such as Google and Amazon have adopted some aspects of it. Google allows the community to use its API to write new programs (mashups) that benefit some customer group. Even Microsoft has reportedly put 12 products into the opensource bucket.