Evolution of Open Source Adoption
Through our cross industry open source experience, OpenCrowd has identified five stages of open source adoption within enterprises.
We see organizations progressing though adoption stages where IT management moves from being reactive to open source introduction and progress to strategically adopting open source. Over time the percentage of open source used increases and organizations begin leveraging the open source model for their own development projects and industry wide initiatives that benefit from tight collaboration.
IT organizations can use these 5 stages of open source evolution as a guide to understanding where they are, and more importantly where they can go to fully leverage the benefits of open source.
At the present time we see most organizations are in stages 1-3, with some examples of initiatives in stage 4. Given the broad impact of open source software on enterprise organizations, we think an evolutionary approach to open source adoption will maximize the benefits while reducing potential risks.
Evolution of Open Source Adoption in the Enterprise
1. Grass Roots
This stage is characterized by project initiated sourcing of open source technologies. Types of open source projects normally includes development and testing frameworks. At this stage, it is mostly developers who are aware of the open source usage, with little to no cross-team or enterprise awareness.
2. Proliferate
During this stage, grass roots success stories with open source technologies are passed informally between development teams. Technology managers are not yet fully aware of the benefits and challenges of open source software. The number of open source projects being used increases dramatically, which often leads to a proliferation of versions being used and redundent projects used for the same functionality. At this stage, legal concerns may be raised and brought to the attention of management. The proliferate phase ends when a formal set of enterprise policies and procedures are put in place to govern the usage of open source technologies.
3. Rationalize
Once a formal policy on acceptable usage of open source technologies is developed, some form of governing body to maintain these standards should emerge. Often enterprises will deploy a task force which develops the policy, which then evolves into a standing open source review board. These review boards are tasked with evaluating new open source usage requests and rationalizing them in some fashion. Establishing an effective governance structure that protects the firm's interest and balances open source adoption risk versus benefits remains a challenge. Over time review board activities are merged with closed software portfolio management.
4. Extend
During this stage, enterprises become much more proactive and efficient with their usage of open source technologies. This normally requires a more supportive, top down approach from management to institutionalize open source usage across the organization. Open source infrastructure components are in place side by side with best of breed commercial software to form a well functioning cost effective hybrid environment. We find the majority of firms today are stuck somewhere between stages 1-3 and have become stalled due to the lack of an overall open source strategy that positions the firm to fully leverage the benefits of open source technologies while managing risks.
5. The Norm
In this final stage, open source technologies are treated and handled the same as closed source commercial products while respecting the unique aspects of open source. The enterprise is actively sharing common code internally and utilizing an open source like collaborative environment for development. The firm is also committed to a number of external open source projects with efficient polices and procedures for participation. Typically the projects will be industry sponsored or collaborative efforts with partners.
