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OSPO 101 Training Modules - Module 2

Section: Introducing the Open Source Program Office

Lesson: Introduction

Section Overview

In this section, we will discuss the role that the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) plays in helping define strategy, implementing associated policies, and guiding an organization’s involvement in open source. There will be a more detailed coverage of how to set up and run an OSPO in a later module in this series.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

Lesson: Overview of Open Source Program Office (OSPO)

What is an OSPO and Why Does My Organization Need One?

A central open source program office is a designated place where open source is supported, nurtured, shared, explained, and grown inside a company. With such an office in place, businesses can establish and execute on their open source strategies in clear terms, giving their leaders, developers, marketers, and other staff the tools they need to make open source a success within their operations.

One of the biggest differences between traditional software development and open source development is the highly collaborative nature used in open source. For many businesses, the needed change in philosophy when approaching open source use doesn’t come easily or naturally.

That’s where the creation of an open source program can be a major boon. By creating an open source program office, businesses can enable, streamline and organize the use of open source in ways that tie it directly to a company’s long-term business plans. An open source program office is designed to be the center of the universe for a company’s open source operations and structure, helping to bring all the needed components together.

This can include setting code use, distribution, selection, auditing and other policies, as well as training developers, ensuring legal compliance and promoting and building community engagement. The office can also provide advocacy and communications about all things open source inside and outside the company.

The Role of an OSPO

Ultimately, a well-organized open source program office is valuable because it can advance open source use, contribution, and creation inside companies for strategic advantage.

A successful office can greatly benefit corporate open source use by establishing processes that enable developers and their teams. It encourages standard coding and organizational practices, processes, and toolsets. At the same time, a program office can help avoid or remove unneeded, rigid processes which creative developers may circumvent or ignore anyway, threatening security and other aspects of projects.

The responsibilities of a program office are varied. These include:

For every company, the role of the open source program office will likely be custom-configured based on its business, products, and goals. There is no broad template for building an open source program that applies across all industries — or even across all companies in a single industry. That can make its creation a challenge, but you can learn lessons from other companies and bring them together to fit your own organization’s requirements.

Another key role for the open source program office is to bring substance and facts to the conversation when business units begin to consider open source in their plans so there is a full understanding of why it is being considered, what the consequences will be, and what is needed to reach its goals. It’s often a matter of framing the conversation so that stakeholders know where to start and what to think about as they weigh their decision.

The OSPO’s Role in Defining Success Metrics

Open source program managers must demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of their efforts. Let’s take a look at how an OSPO helps define some of the standard ways that organizations evaluate their open source programs, projects, and contributions.

Learning what to measure, how to define success, and how to best use this information to advance your open source program objectives, demonstrate effectiveness, and gain support is a critical function of any OSPO.

The goals you set, and metrics you track, will vary according to the reasons you’re investing in open source – whether it’s to recruit developers, bring in new ideas and technologies through open innovation, achieve faster time to market, lower development costs, or myriad other reasons.

It’s important to set goals according to your unique strategy – and seek buy-in from the executive team to ensure that the open source strategy aligns with the overall business strategy. An OSPO can provide that neutral place to help your organization think about these items strategically.

Experienced OSPO staff generally consider the following when building metrics:

Final Thoughts on OSPO Creation

There are many other aspects to building and running an effective OSPO. So many, in fact, that we will have a dedicated section and lessons on this in later course modules in this series. For now, the most important thing to consider is that as you continue your journey up the leadership/participation ladder of open source engagement, you’ll eventually need some form of an OSPO.

As with strategy and policy definition, it’s important to remember the ‘release early, release often’ adage quoted earlier. You don’t need to staff an OSPO with hundreds of people right away to be effective. Starting with an open source leader with enough experience to help guide your organization, and a small staff that can assist them, is usually a good enough start for most organizations.

What you will find naturally is that well-functioning OSPO’s engage many different stakeholders (engineering, product management, and even executives) in ways that multiply their effectiveness despite their small size. We’ll talk more about finding and building open source leadership for an OSPO in future modules.

原文链接： https://github.com/todogroup/ospo-career-path/blob/main/OSPO-101/module2/README.md

选题： mudongliang

本文将由 HCTT 翻译团队 原创翻译，华中科技大学开放原子开源俱乐部荣誉推出。