Inner Source Webinar Series: Open Source Community Development Methods

Inner Source Webinar SeriesCommunity Development Practices in Corporate IT

Inner Source Fundamentals:Transparency, Collaboration and Self-Organization

Inner Source Fundamentals: Egalitarianism, Meritocracy and Measuring Success

1#innersourcing

Andrew AitkenManaging Director

Black Duck Consulting

@andrewolliance

@black_duck_sw

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Guy MartinManaging Principal Architect

Red Hat Consulting

@guyma

@RedHat_Training

Speakers

#innersourcing

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• What Is Inner Source?• Why Use Inner Source?• Inner-Source vs. Agile• Inner-Source Characteristics & Best Practices

– Transparency– Collaboration– Self-Organization

• Measuring Success• Challenges• Getting Started

Agenda

– Egalitarianism– Meritocracy

The application of best practices, processes, culture and methodologies taken from the open source world and applied to

internal software development and innovation efforts.

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http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

What is Inner-Source?

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Ethos Processes Tools & Technology

INNER SOURCE

3 Pillars of Inner Source

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Why Use Inner Source

• Increased velocity– Faster time-to-release

• Improved code– Peer-reviewed/security verified– Scalable/operational at velocity

• Reduced costs– Code reuse/API development– Shared development/maintenance costs

• Increased innovation– Component teams collaborating– Increased cross-organizational awareness

• Enhanced human capital efficiencies– Improved morale, retention and recruitment

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• Allies - not competitors• Some overlap, but in general:

– Agile specifies process– Inner Source informs culture

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Inner Source & Agile

Successful Inner Source Efforts

• Transparency • Collaboration• Self-organization

– Hybrids– Evangelists, catalysts

• Egalitarianism• Meritocracy

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Inner Source Characteristics

Inner Source Characteristics

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Databases

Frameworks

Tools

Languages

Applications

Cloud

Why are Transparency, Collaboration and Self-organization important?

• Transparency– Establishes trust among current and potential participants– Lowers barriers to entry for potential contributors– Helps consumers validate project health (community, codebase, etc.)– Allows management to apply additional resources as required

• Collaboration– Provides core processes/models for efficient work across team boundaries– Allows for better idea generation and implementation– Provides for an increased knowledge base of developer talent

• Self-Organization– Encourages contributors to work on what motivates them the most– Empowerment increases morale and retention of top talent– Relieves some management burden for oversight of common components

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Inner Source Characteristics

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Transparency

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_(behavior)

Transparency, as used in science, engineering and business … implies openness, communication, and accountability.

Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.

• Code Transparency– Fully readable code repositories

• Technical/Design Transparency– Easily available design/architecture documentation

• Decision-making Transparency– Project decisions made ‘in the open’

• Communications Transparency– All project discussions ‘in the open’

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Transparency Best Practices

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Collaboration

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration

Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal… In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources,

recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.

• Cultural Alignment– Awaiting permission vs. taking initiative

• Development Cycle Alignment– Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid

• Development Team Experience Alignment– Experience/specialized vs. Youthful/general purpose

• Collaboration Tools Alignment– Basic (email, IRC) vs. Evolved (Wiki, forums)

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Collaboration Best Practices

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Self-Organization

Guided Semi-guided Unguided

Self-organization is a process where some form of order or coordination arises out of the interactions between the

constituents of an initially unordered or nascent system. The process is spontaneous or loosely directed and the laws followed

by the process may have been chosen or caused by an agent

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Self-Organization Best Practices

• Initially aligned with corporate goals, culture and business/technology imperatives

• Optimized along a cultural baseline• Empowered to effect cultural change• Flexibility to implement own governance, incentive and

measurement models

Process1. Catalyze2. Test, measure, refine3. Settle4. Replicate

Inner Source Governance Models

Inner Source Governance

Corporate alignment as pre-conditions to success

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Wholly Self Determining Completely Structured

Cultural Determinant

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Spectrum of attributes determines tolerances for risk and innovation

• History• Industry• Development process

• History• Industry• Development tools

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Egalitarianism

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarianism

All humans are equal in worth or social status… a positive attitude toward group decision making… and

decentralization of power.

Why it’s important• Breaks down ‘class barriers’ to contributions• Facilitates a wide variety of experiences/viewpoints• Everyone starts on equal footing• Enables fundamentally shared goals

Contribution model• No limitations by organizational position• Decisions made by consensus • Technological diversity

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Egalitarianism

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Meritocracy

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy

Power should be vested in individuals according to merit … Advancement based on intellectual talent measured through

examination or demonstrated achievement.

Why it’s important• Project direction driven by most valuable contributions• Provides an incentive structure for contributors• Project has built-in peer review/feedback loop

Contribution Model• Peer review/vetting of contributions• Voting mechanism• Constructive feedback – no bullying!• Advancement path • Management trust in self-organized leadership

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Meritocracy

Measuring Inner Source Success

Strategic and Organizational• Innovation

– Ideation– Innovation velocity– Participation

• Cultural– Geographic – Functional– Operational

• Organizational– Employee turnover– Cost-per-hire

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Technical– Time-to-deployment– Support costs– Standardization– Code contributions– Developer productivity– Code quality

Establish a measurement framework and review regularly includingquantifiable; ROI/KPIs, technology/platform reuse,

retention/hiring metrics

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Measuring Inner Source Success

Bell Labs (Gurbani, et al.)• Improved organizational model• Trained developers• Improved code quality and functionality

IBM (Community Source)• Increased developer creativity and innovation• 30% faster software development

Philips Healthcare (CTO – Frank van der linden)• Improved technology utilization• Improved product quality• Reduced time-to-market

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Measuring Inner Source Success

• Overall– Cultural gulf– Lack of clearly defined and communicated goals– HR concerns– Management “support”

• Egalitarianism– Fear of loss of control

• Meritocracy– Initial seeding of ‘project influencers’

• Measuring Success– Poorly designed and implemented KPIs

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Challenges

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• Realistic vision, articulated shared purpose and clearly defined problems or opportunities being addressed

• (Initiators, catalysts, evangelists) need to have collaborative experience/mindset

• Acculturation model for new participants• Programmatically facilitated continuous interaction and

behavioral consistency• Start with an intra-organizational group of people with

defined shared goals

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Best Practices

• Align Corporate Ethos– Encourage egalitarianism through example– Reward collaboration with appropriate incentives– Facilitate meritocratic leadership

• Adjust Processes– Transparent contribution policies– Meritocratic governance model– Allow/seed self-organization

• Deploy Tools/Technologies– Evaluate/adjust tools based on feedback– Standardize– Simpler is sometimes better (phase)

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Getting Started

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Estimating Investment

• Cost to include– Program costs

• Infrastructure• Governance• Training• Developer productivity

– Cost for code sharing• COCOMO-based estimates• Test by sampling of projects

• Costs best ignored– Initial code development

• Cost was sunk for other purposes

– Support and maintenance• Balanced by cost reduction on receiving side• Under-estimated for unused, over-estimated for widely used

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Questions

[email protected] [email protected]

View the Full Recordings from this Webinar Series:

• Inner Sourcing: Community Development Practices in Corporate IT

• Understanding Inner Source Fundamentals: Transparency, Collaboration and Self-Organization

• Inner Source Fundamentals: Egalitarianism, Meritocracy and Measuring Success