Presented at OBC2013, San Francisco

2. The Open Source Software Project
Lifecycle: Challenges and Opportunities
Paula Hunter, Executive Director

3. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
Project Lifecycle

4. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
An Idea is born
Prototype
Share ideas

5. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
Go public with project
Look for input / participation
Share code

6. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
Looking for a few good coders
Appoint committers
Identify gaps in code and coders

7. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
Documentation
Forums
Governance
“Commercial” Support

8. Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
People/companies are using the code
New features, bug fixes
Create a business

9. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!
Concept
Launch
Build
Community
Sustain
Support
Adoption
People/companies are using the code
New features, bug fixes
Create a business
Documentation
Forums
Governance
“Commercial” Support Looking for a few good coders
Appoint committers
Identify gaps in code and coders
Go public with project
Look for input / participation
Share code
An Idea is born
Prototype
Share ideas

10. Typical Software Company
CEO
Product Management
Product
Requirements, Pipeline, Customer
feedback
Engineering
Development, QA
Sales and Marketing
Market and sell product, increase
adoption, engage customers
Services and Support
Installation and
deployment, support, bug reporting
IT, Operations, Legal and Finance
Manage company
operations, finances, and
infrastructure

11. Typical OSS Project
Project
Leader *
Project
Committer(s)
Project
Contributor(s)
* Or team

12. Project
Leader
Project
Committer(s)
Project
Contributor(s)

13. Project
Leader
Project
Committer(s)
Project
Contributor(s)

14. Project
Leader
Project
Committer(s)
Project
Contributor(s)

15. Are We Having Fun Yet?
Project
Leader
Project
Committer(s)
Project
Contributor(s)

16. Looking Better?
CEO
Product Management
Product
Requirements, Pipeline, Customer
feedback
Engineering
Development, QA
Sales and Marketing
Market and sell product, increase
adoption, engage customers
Services and Support
Installation and deployment,
support, bug reporting
IT, Operations, Legal and Finance
Manage company operations,
finances, and infrastructure

17. How Foundations Help
• Operations
• Governance
• Legal
• Finance
• Marketing
• Mentorship

18. Orders
of
magnitude

19. Committers
+
Code

20. Developers
Committers
+
Code

21. Developers
Users
Committers
+
Code

22. How do you encourage developers?
(How do you make it easy to build/test/experiment?)
How do you make it easy to contribute?
(What do you communicate to your community)
How do you increase your user base?
(How do you make it easy to install/configure/use the software?)

23. An Open Source Project Framework
Software Construction
Community Development
IP Management

24. Open Source Project Framework
ProjectExes
published
ProjectBuild
AutomatedI
ProjectInstall
Automated
CompleteSrc
published
ProjectBug
Tracking
ProjectBuild
AutomatedII
ProjectTest
AutomatedI
ProjectTest
AutomatedII
BasicArch
Description
Software Construction Maturity

25. Open Source Project Framework
Project
License
Mission
Statement
Codeof
Conduct
Forums,Email
Comms
Platform
FAQs,Howto
Governance
Contribution
Guidelines
Events
Community Development

26. Open Source Project Framework
Project
License
Provenance
Tracking
Repositories
Protected
Dependencies
Documented
Contributions
Audited
Provenance
Management
Committers
Indemnified
Committer
Governance
Trademark
Management
IP Management Activities

27. Questions?
Thank you.
phunter@outercurve.org
@Outercurve, @huntermkt
www.outercurve.org