Open Source Summit Europe Day 3

Notes from a world away

Workshop: Building and Managing an Open Source Program Office

Ibrahim Haddad, Ph.D., VP Strategic Platforms, LF

IbrahimAtLinux.com

OSS is market accelerant
direct + indirect product enablement = upstream development enables better products (screenshot)
OSS improves talent and skills development. hire better people. attracts talent.
OSS is building block of the innovation pipeline. others are research, venture capital, industry collab, etc
monitor open source usage. top N (like 50), prioritize, have a plan for these. re-evaluate yearly
four poles of OSS Strategy. Culture, Projects, Community, Governance. Products at the middle.
- culture story. the younger the company, the more oriented around open source they are
core elements of enterprise open source
- consumption. compliance. contribution. community.

Consumption and Compliance Infra (screenshot, much like my "wow slide"). 5 or 6 years to get to this.
- strategy, portals, policy and process, development, team, education, tools, LF
your open source policy should be a 30 second pitch or no one cares
compliance due diligence. accessibility of tool to all developers. transparency of open issues and how they are handled. scalable supporting large code bases. speed to keep up with development pace. accuracy. auditability.
Contribution Infra (screenshot)
- contribution, dedicated group, open standards
how to make it all work?
- create the right environment
- provide the right incentives. let engineers meet and mingle. budget for travel as reward
- provide the right exposure
- integrate your teams within the specific projects' communities
why should we work upstream? (screenshots)

one size doesn't fit all
hypthesis: year over year, your structure changes with your strategy, and that's good. grow to build competence and culture. then you can shrink a bit.
usually, these roles are present:
- head, directory or VP
- software architect or PE
- technical evangelist
- compliance engineers
- legal counsel, usually borrowed
- developers, but better to federate

(screenshot)

culture
operations
tools
continuity. potentially the hardest
education. also hard, due to the many levels required. GET INTO NEW HIRE ONBOARDING.

TODO Group is a gigantic resource, use it.

make sure you don't become "just" a development team for a single project.
identify your reliance. what? where? how dependent are you on it?
clarify needed skills
join organizations
be patient and seek out influential peers. "we are talking years."
practice and encourage an open and collaborative mindset. stop competing with yourself! like-minded people are often your competitors
adopt flexible and supportive IT infrastructure to enable OSS development
track success through metrics designed specifically for OSS development
follow a lightweight and tailored approach to source code contribution approvals
- base on the type. for example:
- patch: Engineering Manager
- major: EM and Director
- internal to open source: larger scrutiny
- blanket approvals
sharing info across divisions. foster internal collab via innersource
contribute strategically to the most critical projects
allocate time for OSS developers to meet upstream responsibilities, especially if they are maintainers
partner with product teams on upstream code development that helps reduce their technical debt
develop open source talent and encourage involvement. training, mentorship, pairing, events.
create mentorship program to support growth of junior developers (LFX mentorship)
participate and host open source events to build developer networks, influence technical discussions, and increase visibility

mastery of three things: consumption, compliance, contribution core principles to embrace: (screenshot)

we cannot hire all the smart people in the world. open source is the conduit
open source R&D creates significant value
we don't need to create a project to benefit from it. Combat "NOT INVENTED HERE" syndrome.
https://www.ibrahimatlinux.com/books