First introduction.md commit

Author: jsmanrique

introduction/introduction.md

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+Introduction
+============
+
+It was 2011 when Marc Andreessen wrote his famous article, “Why Software
+is eating the World”[^1]. By that time, Linux Kernel was already 20
+years old, developed under an open collaborative model by hundreds of
+developers from different companies, and some even contributing during
+their spare time. Linux can be found in almost any kind of device, from
+IoT and car components, to super computing cloud hardware, without
+forgetting one of the most used mobile operating systems in the market.
+
+And Linux is just one example of how a free, open source software (OSS)
+project has evolved from one single idea in one single person’s head to
+multiple applications in many different fields and sectors. Each
+application has improved it over time, thanks to its open collaborative
+development methodology.
+
+Almost 6 years later, we can assure that free, open source sofwtare
+(OSS) projects have succed in the IT development ecosystem. We can see
+companies adopting OSS technologies and people contributing to OSS from
+different companies and even during their spare time.
+
+How has OSS reached the level of innovation we have nowadays? How has it
+reached the market acceptance we see nowdays? How has it engaged so many
+people and organizations to contribute to it?
+
+It’s a teamwork effort and quoting John Wooden (former UCLA Bruins
+basketball coach) in IBM Linux comercial [^2]:
+
+“A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player.
+Losing yourself in the group for the good of the group, that’s
+teamwork.”
+
+The Digital Transformation hype
+-------------------------------
+
+During the same period of time, many companies have started facing what
+they call their “Digital Transformation”, to become software omnichannel
+companies[^3]. 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
+people and companies to build strong and competent “DevOps”[^4] 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 resuse 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
+use their own IT architecture, ending with an inefficient management of
+resources caused by multiplication of technologies, developments, etc.
+
+Even if the companies have adopted a “DevOps culture”, the lack of
+shared source code and knowledge infrastructure, with a clear governance
+model that allow people form the company to contribute to it is the main
+issue in these cases, creating a “Silos Culture”.
+
+Collaborative development in Open Source world has been used several
+times as an example of how these methodologies can break silos between
+companies that might be even market competitors. 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 an “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 engage 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
+engage at work. Don’t worry, you are not alone. According to World
+Economic Forum [^5] 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[^6] 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%.
+
+Adopting OSS 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 manage their projects under a
+    collaborative methodology
+
+-   Transparent communication channels to break silos
+
+-   Meritocracy for developers, creating the “contributor role”
+
+-   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
+    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 OSS development principles inside your company is the main
+definition for Inner Source or Inner Sourcing. 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):
+
+[^1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460
+
+[^2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ozaFbqg00
+
+[^3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnichannel
+
+[^4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
+
+[^5]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/70-of-employees-say-they-are-disengaged-at-work-heres-how-to-motivate-them/
+
+[^6]: http://www.towerswatson.com/DownloadMedia.aspx?media=%7B1EBA6F1E-B1E7-4F0A-A9F7-D828C4D8B2AE%7D