Of horses, water, and getting them to drink

Getting your open source company to contribution

Chris Jansen Developer, Deeson

@legolasbochrisj@deeson.co.uk

Developer 5+ yearsOpen source enthusiastDrupal (core) contributor

Jeffrey ‘jam’ McGuireEvangelist, DevRel, Acquia@horncolognejam@acquia.comdev.acquia.com/podcast

Open Source Evangelist, longstanding passion for Drupal project / communityAdvisor @openstrategypartners.com

Outline. Introduction

Benefits of using open source

Why contribute?

Identifying roadblocks

Removing roadblocks

Now go contribute!

Recap

Q&A

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he they who did nothing because he they could do only a little.”

Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

• Office of the CTO (OCTO)• 10 full-time Drupal Core & ecosystem

contributors• Drupal 8 Module Acceleration Program

• $500K USD investing in module upgrades• Major sponsor of events, code sprints, &c.• Acquia Labs: “Drupal beyond the browser”• Drupal security team members, module

maintainers, community organizers … !

Contributes

The developer’s perspective

So what’s the problem?

Map the problem.

Identify negative catalysts.

Identify possible solutions.

Benefits of using open source software

The businessperspective

License fee of zero

Lower development costs

Faster time to market

Improved ROI

Reduced vendor lock-in

…

The obvious stuff.

IT costsPersonnel

Hosting Infrastructure

BandwidthSLA Support

Design

Proprietary. Open Source.IT costsPersonnelHostingInfrastructureBandwidthSLA Support Design

Features: Vendor roadmapFeatures: Vendor release cycle

Vendor lock-inBuy back your data

Proprietary. Open Source.Features: What you needFeatures: When you need itFeatures: Cutting edge1000s of vendorsYou own your data

License feesOne time / Annual / Recurring €€€

Pay for permission to try

Proprietary. Open Source.License fees€ 0.00

Invest in features, training, staff …Cheap, (almost) risk-free POCsBuild better, not cheaper.

Build better, not cheaper.

Budget == 100 Proprietary Open Source Reallocation

License fees 30 0 -30

Infrastructure, etc. 15 15 0

Strategy, Design, UX 25 35 +10

Features 20 30 +10

Implementation, QA 10 20 +10

Contribute?Of course!

Seems obvious …

Seems obvious…

Because we are optimists & idealists

“Because it’s the right thing to do!”

“Push community, that’s why you are here”

“We should give back was always our mentality”

“My future took a completely different turn based on the fact that we contributed to open source.”

Identifying contribution roadblocks

Strategic Roadblocks

Not knowing the why

1.

Simon Sinek

TEDx 2009How Great Leaders Inspire Action

BookStart With Why

https://goo.gl/S8KNUx

Identified roadblocks

1. Unclear mandate/policy (“The Why”)

2. Lack of knowledge (“The How”)

3. Doubts about own skills

4. Lack of time

5. Lack of procedure (“The What”)

Operational Roadblocks

Identified roadblocks

2.

Real problems in a medium sized operation.

25+ employees

Removing Strategic Contribution Roadblocks

The boss talk.

community contribution doesn't happen without promotion in the community (sessions, blog posts, webinars, etc.)

Long term, systematic thinking, v "quick wins" ... I want to prioritise long term, profitable systems over short term, profitable billing codes.

Management:

Discuss contribution

Get consensus

Define contribution policy/mandate

Developers:

When in doubt, ask for clear policy/mandate

Define / Change Policy

Let’s unblock those developers!

That sounds convincing! !?

Removing Operational Contribution Roadblocks

Let’s solve this problem

Increase proficiency trough training and guidance

1.

So we’ve reduced the knowledge problem…

Now what?

2.

Proficiency +mandate = Confident contribution

But … we’re not there yet

3.

Integrating dev workflow with open source

Development flow.

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Share your work.

Company OS Project

Share

Share

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Use the work of others.

Use

Share

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Company OS Project

Improve the work of others.

Company OS Project

Share

Share

Use

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Analyse Develop

Peer reviewPublish

Result:

Contribution is how you work.

4.

So what do we contribute!?

So whatcan we do? !?

There must be 50 ways …

Code

Reviews

Documentation

Sponsorship

Organise

Design

Evangelise

And more!

7+

Introduction

Benefits of using open source

Why contribute?

Identifying roadblocks

Removing roadblocks

Now go contribute!

Recap

Q&A

Recap.

Thank you!

Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire Chris Jansen@legolasbo

chrisj@deeson.co.uk@horncolognejam@acquia.comdev.acquia.com/podcast