Managing Open Source Based Projects
This article is a follow-up to the Using Open Source Software and covers some details about how to manage staff that are using open source.
Skills Inventory
One activity that is commonly undertaken when an organisation is beginning the open source journey is to figure out who in the organisation has pre-existing skills that can be leveraged:
At any stage, from a management perspective, it is useful to have a mapping, an inventory of open source resources, assets, usage and their status, as well as potential needs and available solutions. It also includes assessing the required effort and skills to fill the gap. This activity aims to take a snapshot of the open source situation within the organization and on the market and evaluate the bridge between them - OW2 Good Governance Initiative
The Good Governance Initiative also suggests to:
Create an inventory of OSS usage in the software development chain as well as in the software products and components used in production.
Identify open source technologies (solutions, frameworks, innovative features) that could fit your needs and help improve your process.
Open Source Supervision
Once open source software has been chosen for consumption, it will need to be deployed to production and managed. This might involve organising support arrangements with third parties or employing expert staff. The Good Governance Initiative calls this "Open Source Supervision":
This activity is about controlling the use of open source and ensuring open source software is proactively managed. This concerns several perspectives, be it to use OSS tools and business solutions, or to include OSS as components in own developments or modify a version of a soft- ware adapting it to its own needs, etc. It is also about identifying areas where open source has become a (sometimes covert) de facto solution and assessing its suitability. - OW2 Good Governance Initiative
At this stage it may be necessary to evaluate the open source's Total Cost of Ownership
Open Source Support
Paying for a support contract for open source software offers several significant benefits, especially for businesses that rely on these technologies for critical operation:
- They ensures priority access to expert assistance.
- Support contracts often come with assurances of regular updates and security patches,
- Financial contributions through support contracts can fund ongoing development and improvements.
Source Control
Organisations involved in developing software should ensure they have appropriate source control, whether or not they are using open source in the development process.