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| 1 | +#Inner source scenarios |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Where inner source methodology is being used? Which kind of companies are already |
| 4 | +using it? |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +In 2000, Tim O'Reilly defined inner source as "the use of open source development |
| 7 | +techniques within the corporation". Clearly this definition applies to |
| 8 | +companies developing software for their own use or to be used by |
| 9 | +third parties. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +Some common open source development techniques are: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- transparent development: anyone is able to review and contribute |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +- forks are welcome: innovation is usually driven by new ideas from existing projects |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +- diverse teams: people from all around the world are able to contribute, independently of their gender, |
| 18 | + education, race, etc. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +- transparent communication: everything, from documents to conversations, is written and |
| 21 | + stored, to allow historical review |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Inner source, like open source, is well suited for cross-organization collaboration breaking |
| 24 | +boundaries of teams, business units and nations. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Beyond the obvious profile, software development companies, let's see some |
| 27 | +scenarios or situations where inner source can help. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +## The digital transformation wave |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +During last years, many companies have started facing what |
| 32 | +they call their “Digital Transformation”, to become omnichannel |
| 33 | +companies[^1]. They become heavy IT users and the key transformation |
| 34 | +steps usually are defined by |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +- breaking cross-organizational silos (cultural change) |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +- adoption new IT technologies (cloud, big data, mobile, etc.) |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +The adoption of these technologies usually means that companies need |
| 41 | +to build competent “DevOps”[^2] teams. Yes, “DevOps”, the second |
| 42 | +hype-word after “Digital Transformation” of these ages. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +“DevOps teams” share some principles with collaborative development |
| 45 | +teams in the open source world. As first described by John Willis and |
| 46 | +Damon Edwards in 2010, CALMS, standing for Culture (collaboration), |
| 47 | +Automation, Lean, Measurement, and Sharing to describe the “DevOps |
| 48 | +framework”, obviously contains terms familar to any open source |
| 49 | +developer. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +These teams usually develop custom software solutions and deployment |
| 52 | +recipes for their companies. For small, medium enterprises (SME) this |
| 53 | +could be useful and easy to manage. But, what happens when the company |
| 54 | +has several DevOps teams around the world? How can they ensure a maximum |
| 55 | +code/knowledge reuse across the organization? |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +We have seen companies facing the same problem with different solutions |
| 58 | +due to the lack of cross-organizational transparent and collaborative |
| 59 | +methodology. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +## The world of silos |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +In some cases, there is a corporate head or central unit that decides |
| 64 | +the technology for the rest of business units. When these business units |
| 65 | +adopt the technology, they usually need to customize it, ending with |
| 66 | +something slightly different to the orginal product. While the central |
| 67 | +unit evolves its product in their “closed silo”, the other units are |
| 68 | +probably doing the same in their “silos”. The result? The adoption of |
| 69 | +any update of the “core product” is a nightmare. |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +In other cases, business units behave as independent companies. Each one |
| 72 | +uses their own IT architecture, ending with an inefficient management of |
| 73 | +resources caused by multiplication of technologies, developments, etc. |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +Collaborative development in open source ecosystems has been used several |
| 76 | +times as an example of how these methodologies can break silos between |
| 77 | +companies that might be even market competitors. Those companies have |
| 78 | +been able to share knowledge and resources with a common goal . If competitors can |
| 79 | +collaborate to build technology in which their business rely on, why |
| 80 | +could not corporate business units do the same if they have corporate |
| 81 | +succes as mission? |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +## The start-ups bubble |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +Many people might discuss if we are living a “start-ups bubble” or not, |
| 86 | +but we are clearly surrounded by news about how a group of few people go |
| 87 | +from a garage to a multinational company in a few years through |
| 88 | +investment rounds. |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | +Our experience tell us that opening offices abroad is always a |
| 91 | +challenge, and managing development teams growing that fast can be a |
| 92 | +serious problem. |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | +The lack of effective and transparent communication channels and |
| 95 | +documented procedures, might make harder any new employee on-boarding |
| 96 | +and to be engaged with the company. |
| 97 | + |
| 98 | +On the other hand, recently created companies have been born taking |
| 99 | +advantage of the existing IT solutions to provide omnichannel services. |
| 100 | +They are used to work under “DevOps culture” and it might be easier for |
| 101 | +them to adopt a common cross-organizational methodology that allow |
| 102 | +transparency and collaboration. |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +## Disengagement at work |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +If previous scenarios are familiar to you, probably you don’t feel |
| 107 | +engaged at work. Don’t worry, you are not alone. According to World |
| 108 | +Economic Forum [^3] 70% of employees say they are disengaged at work. |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +In the same article, it says that “Research from the University of |
| 111 | +California found that motivated employees were 31% more productive, had |
| 112 | +37% higher sales, and were three times more creative than demotivated |
| 113 | +employees. They were also 87% less likely to quit, according to a |
| 114 | +Corporate Leadership Council study on over 50,000 people”. |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +Towers Watson[^4] found that companies with engaged employees produced |
| 117 | +19.2% more operative incomes in one year, but companies with worse |
| 118 | +engagement operative incomes get reduced by 32.7%. |
| 119 | + |
| 120 | +It was Daniel Pink in his book "Drive"[^5] who argues that human motivation is |
| 121 | +largely intrinsic. The aspects of this motivation can be divided into |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +- autonomy, typical for OSS projects developers that are self-managed |
| 124 | + |
| 125 | +- mastery, as the desire to improve developer skills to improve the project they are involved in |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | +- purpose, defined as mission in many OSS projects |
| 128 | + |
| 129 | +These aspects are key for software developers motivation, since their tasks |
| 130 | +involve cognitive skills, decision-making, creativity, or higher-order thinking. |
| 131 | + |
| 132 | +[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnichannel |
| 133 | + |
| 134 | +[^2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps |
| 135 | + |
| 136 | +[^3]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/70-of-employees-say-they-are-disengaged-at-work-heres-how-to-motivate-them/ |
| 137 | + |
| 138 | +[^4]: http://www.towerswatson.com/DownloadMedia.aspx?media=%7B1EBA6F1E-B1E7-4F0A-A9F7-D828C4D8B2AE%7D |
| 139 | + |
| 140 | +[^5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive:_The_Surprising_Truth_About_What_Motivates_Us |
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