Open Source Software in the Organization

Diomidis Spinellis, Athens University of Economics and Business

Total pages: 53

$29.00

Introduction

One might be tempted to regard the open source movement as a passing fad. The truth is that open source software is profoundly affecting how we develop software, how we deploy information technology in our organizations, and the way we collaborate.

Open source changes both the software we build and how we build it. We now have at our disposal huge open source software (OSS) repositories. There are also application domains where opportunistically reusing OSS is a valid and often the only practical approach. We thus see young developers who instinctively turn to open source systems every time they need to solve a problem, scavenging for elements they can use to assemble their project.

As open source developers diffuse into our workplaces, they also affect how we build software. Professionals participating in open source projects have helped the dissemination and adoption of essential development practices such as configuration management, issue tracking, automated testing, and release engineering. Partly thanks to these practices, startup companies now routinely churn out software projects whose size was once in the exclusive domain of big defense contractors.

Beyond software development, OSS is redefining information technology's role in our organizations. Thanks to open source, we can obtain commodity software for free, while higher up the value chain ladder many companies develop strategic IT assets by taking advantage of open source offerings. A few go further, basing their business model around OSS artifacts and communities.

Finally, open source development models are teaching us how we can collaborate across organizations, time zones, and cultures. Lightweight processes, workflows relying exclusively on information technology, and interactions based on trust and respect have worked wonders for open source and are now being tried in other domains. Whether our goal is to design a plane or run an election campaign, we can learn something from how open source teams work.

The articles in this collection represent all the facets I've outlined here. They thus show us the many ways in which our organizations can benefit from open source projects, practices, and ideas.

There will come a time when open source will stop being a buzzword, when what we now recognize as a fad will be yesterday's news. However, when open source ceases to excite us, it won't be because it will have become irrelevant, but because it will have changed computing so much that we'll be taking it for granted. In the meantime, we can all enjoy sharing our work in an open environment and learn from a truly revolutionary movement.

Keywords: Software development, open source software, architecture, open source, session initiation protocol, help desk, technical support, IT systems, FLOSS projects, information systems infrastructure, information systems development, information systems implementation

Table of Contents

How Is Open Source Affecting Software Development?

Diomidis Spinellis, Athens University of Economics and Business Clemens Szyperski, Microsoft Research

Summary: The development process is gaining from widespread use of sophisticated open source development platforms and tools and corresponding development and coding practices. However, complex dependencies, process integration, and the coevolution of multiple open source and proprietary projects are still open problems.

The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives

Dirk Riehle, SAP Research

Summary: Open source software has changed the rules of the game, significantly impacting stakeholders' economic behavior in the software ecosystem. Developers strive to be committers, vendors feel pressure to produce OSS products, and system integrators anticipate higher profits.

A Case Study of a Corporate Open Source Development Model

Vijay Gurbani and Anita Garvert, Lucent Technologies

James Herbsleb, Carnegie Mellon University

Summary: Open source practices and tools have helped solve many problems in geographically distributed software development. But such tools and practices might conflict with development environments, management practices, and market-driven schedule and feature decisions typical in commercial organizations. This case study looks at the telecommunications domain.

Assessing the Health of Open Source Communities

Kevin Crowston and James Howison, Syracuse University

Summary: The computing world lauds many free/libre and OSS offerings for their reliability and features, but not all FLOSS projects succeed. Before you contribute to a project, understand its developers, leaders, and active users. They're neither all teenage hackers nor all skillful, ethical professionals.

Open Source Technical Support: A Look at Peer Help-Giving

Vandana Singh, Michael B. Twidale, Dinesh Rathi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary: To explore online technical support of OSS, the authors studied discussion board postings. They found that help-givers need several types of detail to diagnose and solve help-seekers' problems. This study compares these findings with studies of phone-based technical help lines and identifies ways to improve the process.

Developing an Information Systems Infrastructure with Open Source Software

Brian Fitzgerald, University of Limerick

Tony Kenny, Beaumont Hospital

Summary: In the wake of budget shortfalls, Ireland's Beaumont Hospital addressed its information systems infrastructure needs by turning to OSS. With a two-phase approach, the hospital's IT department upgraded its application platform and associated server environment.

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