Development lessons
from the world of
Open Source Software
Andy Lester, 9/5/2007
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Andy Lester
• 20+ years of software development
• 10+ years of open source development
• perlbuzz.com
• My new news site
• perlfoundation.org
• PR for the Perl Foundation
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Highly successful
open source projects
Linux, *BSD Subversion
Perl, PHP,
Python
Ruby + Rails
SpamAssassin Apache vim Emacs
Mozilla/
Firefox
Wikipedia MediaWiki Mono
OpenOffice Eclipse JBoss Tomcat
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Process
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Requirements are fluid.
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Think wiki, not Word.
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All development
must be in the open.
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Coding standards
are a must.
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Automated testing
is the only kind
that scales.
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Release early.
Release often.
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Product
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The software world is
market-driven.
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Project X is going to
replace your project.
Make sure you are
Project X.
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Public perception will
make or break your
project.
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Some projects will fail.
Cut your losses early.
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Listen to users, but
don't bother with
consensus.
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Every project needs a
strong leader to drive.
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People
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Leadership is earned.
It cannot be assigned.
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People work best on
what they love.
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Everyone on a project
is a volunteer.
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Only this guy has
employees for life.
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Authoritarianism
does not work.
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Jerks are toxic and
must be removed.
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No one is irreplaceable.
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A meritocracy does
not see race, color,
gender, or religion.
It sees quality.
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Importance of social
skills increases with
physical distance.
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People are all that matter.
Always be recruiting.
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Your next steps
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Join an
open source project.
(Including Wikipedia)