Created scenarios.md

Author: jsmanrique

introduction/scenarios.md

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+#Inner source scenarios
+
+Where inner source methodology is being used? Which kind of companies are already
+using it?
+
+In 2000, Tim O'Reilly defined inner source as "the use of open source development 
+techniques within the corporation". Clearly this definition applies to
+companies developing software for their own use or to be used by 
+third parties.
+
+Some common open source development techniques are:
+
+- transparent development: anyone is able to review and contribute
+
+- forks are welcome: innovation is usually driven by new ideas from existing projects
+
+- diverse teams: people from all around the world are able to contribute, independently of their gender,
+  education, race, etc.
+
+- transparent communication: everything, from documents to conversations, is written and 
+  stored, to allow historical review
+  
+Inner source, like open source, is well suited for cross-organization collaboration breaking
+boundaries of teams, business units and nations.
+
+Beyond the obvious profile, software development companies, let's see some 
+scenarios or situations where inner source can help.
+
+## The Digital Transformation wave
+
+During last years, many companies have started facing what
+they call their “Digital Transformation”, to become omnichannel
+companies[^4]. They become heavy IT users and the key transformation
+steps usually are defined by
+
+-   breaking cross-organizational silos (cultural change)
+
+-   adoption new IT technologies (cloud, big data, mobile, etc.)
+
+The adoption of these technologies usually means that companies need 
+to build competent “DevOps”[^5] teams. Yes, “DevOps”, the second 
+hype-word after “Digital Transformation” of these ages.
+
+“DevOps teams” share some principles with collaborative development
+teams in the open source world. As first described by John Willis and
+Damon Edwards in 2010, CALMS, standing for Culture (collaboration),
+Automation, Lean, Measurement, and Sharing to describe the “DevOps
+framework”, obviously contains terms familar to any open source
+developer.
+
+These teams usually develop custom software solutions and deployment
+recipes for their companies. For small, medium enterprises (SME) this
+could be useful and easy to manage. But, what happens when the company
+has several DevOps teams around the world? How can they ensure a maximum
+code/knowledge reuse across the organization?
+
+We have seen companies facing the same problem with different solutions
+due to the lack of cross-organizational transparent and collaborative
+methodology.
+
+## The World of Silos
+
+In some cases, there is a corporate head or central unit that decides
+the technology for the rest of business units. When these business units
+adopt the technology, they usually need to customize it, ending with
+something slightly different to the orginal product. While the central
+unit evolves its product in their “closed silo”, the other units are
+probably doing the same in their “silos”. The result? The adoption of
+any update of the “core product” is a nightmare.
+
+In other cases, business units behave as independent companies. Each one
+uses their own IT architecture, ending with an inefficient management of
+resources caused by multiplication of technologies, developments, etc.
+
+Collaborative development in open source ecosystems has been used several
+times as an example of how these methodologies can break silos between
+companies that might be even market competitors. Those companies have
+been able to share knowledge and resources with a common goal . If competitors can
+collaborate to build technology in which their business rely on, why
+could not corporate business units do the same if they have corporate
+succes as mission?
+
+## The start-ups bubble
+
+Many people might discuss if we are living a “start-ups bubble” or not,
+but we are clearly surrounded by news about how a group of few people go
+from a garage to a multinational company in a few years through
+investment rounds.
+
+Our experience tell us that opening offices abroad is always a
+challenge, and managing development teams growing that fast can be a
+serious problem.
+
+The lack of effective and transparent communication channels and
+documented procedures, might make harder any new employee on-boarding
+and to be engaged with the company.
+
+On the other hand, recently created companies have been born taking
+advantage of the existing IT solutions to provide omnichannel services.
+They are used to work under “DevOps culture” and it might be easier for
+them to adopt a common cross-organizational methodology that allow
+transparency and collaboration.
+
+## Disengagement at work
+
+If previous scenarios are familiar to you, probably you don’t feel
+engaged at work. Don’t worry, you are not alone. According to World
+Economic Forum [^6] 70% of employees say they are disengaged at work.
+
+In the same article, it says that “Research from the University of
+California found that motivated employees were 31% more productive, had
+37% higher sales, and were three times more creative than demotivated
+employees. They were also 87% less likely to quit, according to a
+Corporate Leadership Council study on over 50,000 people”.
+
+Towers Watson[^7] found that companies with engaged employees produced
+19.2% more operative incomes in one year, but companies with worse
+engagement operative incomes get reduced by 32.7%.
+
+It was Daniel Pink in his book "Drive"[^8] who argues that human motivation is 
+largely intrinsic. The aspects of this motivation can be divided into 
+
+- autonomy, typical for OSS projects developers that are self-managed
+
+- mastery, as the desire to improve developer skills to improve the project they are involved in
+
+- purpose, defined as mission in many OSS projects
+
+These aspects are key for software developers motivation, since their tasks
+involve cognitive skills, decision-making, creativity, or higher-order thinking.
+
+## Adopting open source development principles
+
+Briefing, there are several scenarios found in companies with an strong
+IT factor:
+
+-   “Silos Culture” avoiding cross-organizational transparency
+
+-   Inefficient resources management
+
+-   Disengagement at work
+
+By adopting OSS development principles, companies are adopting:
+
+-   Governance model with policies to self-manage their projects under a
+    collaborative methodology
+
+-   Transparent communication channels to break silos
+
+-   Meritocracy, or do-cracy, for developers, who become engaged “contributors” 
+    (autonomous, willing to improve their skills and focused in project purpose)
+
+-   New roles for project managers, empowering their soft skills for
+    people/community management
+
+These principles will help the companies on:
+
+-   Effective resources management, with better code/knowledge reuse
+    and cost sharing accross the different units
+
+-   Faster technology innovations/improvements, since the code is
+    developed collaboratively and transparently by interested people and
+    units
+
+-   Empowered employees, increasing engagement by letting them to be
+    part of companies development roadmap
+
+-   Higher inner-innovation, by allowing employees to propose new ideas
+    implementation based on company’s technology/knowledge
+
+Adopting open source development principles inside your company is the main
+definition for inner source. If you have already
+decided, or have started to adopt Inner Source in your company, this
+book will provide you some insights about how you can track the status
+of your path.
+
+“Collecting data is only the first step toward wisdom, but sharing data
+is the first step toward community.” – Henry Lewis Gates (professor at
+Harvard)
+
+[^4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnichannel
+
+[^5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
+
+[^6]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/70-of-employees-say-they-are-disengaged-at-work-heres-how-to-motivate-them/
+
+[^7]: http://www.towerswatson.com/DownloadMedia.aspx?media=%7B1EBA6F1E-B1E7-4F0A-A9F7-D828C4D8B2AE%7D
+
+[^8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive:_The_Surprising_Truth_About_What_Motivates_Us