Software Development meets Open Source

Matt Jordan zeigt in seinem Talk, welche Herausforderungen bei der Übertragung von agilen Methoden auf die Entwicklung großer Open Source Projekte entstehen und wie auch in diesen agil entwickelt werden kann.

Transcript

1. Open and Agile Matt Jordan @mattcjordan Applying Agile Tenets to an Open Source Project
2. 2 Background Or: Why I'm in Düsseldorf
3. 3 A Personal Road to Agile Director of Technology at Digium
4. 4 A Personal Road to Agile  Started in Closed Source Commercial Software  911 Emergency Systems https://flic.kr/p/kRuVHc
5. 5 A Personal Road to Agile https://flic.kr/p/96eoxg
6. 6 A Personal Road to Agile  Government/Defense Contractor  Missile Defense https://flic.kr/p/fWv2pd
7. 7 A Personal Road to Agile https://flic.kr/p/f8nQ81
8. 8 A Personal Road to Agile https://flic.kr/p/aTffsz
9. 9 Open Source: Asterisk  Open Source communications framework  Long history – Started in 1999 by Mark Spencer – Many contributors over the years  Digium: Primary Maintainer and Sponsor
10. 10 Asterisk Statistics  Primarily written in C – ~722000 SLOC – ~26,628 commits over ~16 years – ~100 unique contributors per year  Active: Past Week – +2457/-429 – 166 commits to all branches – 21 commits to master – 15 authors  Global Developer Community – Digium team: ~10 devs – Digium: ~50% commits
11. 11 Open Source: A Community Core Devs Other Devs Power Users Community Users Unknown Users
12. 12 Asterisk Project ? Open Source: Development Methodology Digium Agile Company C Heroic Effort Company A Waterfall Company B Agile
13. 13 What happens when we apply an Agile philosophy to the overall project?
14. 14 Problems Or: I've got 99 developers and I don't control any of them
15. 15 A Hypothesis  Our problems are implementation independent – “Backlog”, “Sprints”, “Stand-ups” are all tools – Issues are more fundamental  Agile Development – Maximize productivity of a software team  Open Source Development – Maximize contributions from a community (Thierry Carrez, DoE Open Stack Foundation)  Obvious differences!
16. 16 Agile Manifesto
17. 17 Questioning the Agile Manifesto  Individuals and interactions over processes and tools  Open Source: highly individualistic – Enterprise to contractors – Many motivations/goals  Need a level playing field https://flic.kr/p/dRCKiT
18. 18 Questioning the Agile Manifesto  Working software over comprehensive documentation  Open Source: Not a homogeneous environment – Language – Ability – Time https://flic.kr/p/p41DEy
19. 19 Questioning the Agile Manifesto  Customer collaboration over contract negotiation  Open Source: who are the customers? – Each company has their own customer – All participants are customers https://flic.kr/p/k7xw5y
20. 20 Questioning the Agile Manifesto  Responding to change over following a plan  Open Source: the only constant is change  If there is no plan, there is no coordination https://flic.kr/p/ajcZdN
21. 21 Agile Manifesto We have to pay more attention to these!
22. 22 Some Specifics to Address  Concept of Customers is “fuzzy” – The Agile Manifesto assumes we have an explicit customer – Open source development blurs the line between customer and developer  You are not in control – The Agile Manifesto assumes an element of control over the team and environment – Open source development surrenders control  Primary motivation is different – Agile development: focus is on the team – Open source development: focus is on the community  Community != Team – Can we build one from it?
23. 23 The Big Picture https://flic.kr/p/dBfXub
24. 24 (Possible) Solutions Or: It is really hard to manage a kitten in a box
25. 25 Customers  All contributors have their own customers – Very few driven solely by boredom – Customers each have different needs that may not overlap  Contributors are customers! – Product is the project – Payment is contributions  Customer collaboration is a constant  Contract is the Open Source License
26. 26 Customers  Keep your contributors happy – Keep the rules consistent – Give ownership  Keep your (paying) customers happy – None of it matters if you can't eat – If you can eat, others will be able to as well  Conflicts will occur – Be honest about conflict – Assume (most) people are reasonable
27. 27 Customers  All contributors have their own customers – Very few driven solely by boredom – Customers each have different needs that may not overlap  Contributors are customers! – Product is the project – Payment is contributions  Customer collaboration is a constant  Contract is the Open Source License
28. 28 Managing the Chaos  Control: People (more or less) working on what you hope for  Control is not explicit – There is no money exchanged – There are no contracts – Anyone may fork a project  “Control” comes through mutually agreed benefits https://flic.kr/p/4wqLVF
29. 29 Mutually Agreed Benefits  Problems that a project solves are generally shared – High likelihood of overlap – Lack of overlap is not necessarily bad  Problems are generally larger than the participants – Simple problems typically don't require open source  Developers like to solve problems – Often, the harder, the better  Transparency & Communication
30. 30 Building a Team out of a Community  Transparency – Everything that can be open must be open – People watch, then do – Open code is necessary but not sufficient for open source success  Transparency builds teams out of loose groups https://flic.kr/p/4mnXV9
31. 31 Building a Team out of a Community  Communication – Open Source requires a lot more – Written communication trumps all  IRC/Chat  E-mail  Wiki docs  Real Time Communication must be the last resort https://flic.kr/p/5UWkqe
32. 32 Can We Learn Anything from This?  Typical Agile practices assume a different environment – Well defined customer – Well defined team  Adapting Agile requires: – Balancing two different customers  Developers  Those who pay you – More written communication  Provides intrinsic planning  Allows for participation  Build the team from the community
33. 33 Agile is about dealing with People
34. 34 Open Source just adds a lot more People
36. 36 Questions Danke!