How Open Source Principles Can Help Organizational Governance
A presentation at DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 in in Pittsburgh, PA, USA by John Picozzi
How Open Source Principles Can Help Organizational Governance JUNE 2023
OUR PEOPLE John Picozzi Solution Architect I believe strongly in contributing to the Drupal community and supporting open source in any way I can. I’m the organizer of the Drupal Providence Meetup, an Acquia-certified Site Builder, a co-host on Talking Drupal, and a co-organizer of the New England Drupal Camp. Throughout my career I have crafted Drupal solutions for many organizations like CVS Caremark, Leica Geosystems, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Marriott International, Rhode Island School of Design and Novartis. EPAM Proprietary & Confidential. 2
Talk Background - Working on an Omni-Channel Web Platform for the last 1.5 years. Delivered a talk earlier this year at Florida Drupal Camp about Headless Omni-Channel Web Platforms. Posted to OpenSource.com “5 Open source principles that help organizational governance” Delivering a lightning talk at DrupalCon today! 33
01 Better Spent Budgets Do More With Less! 4
#1 BETTER SPENT BUDGETS Contribute Features & Functionality Allowing the sharing of features and functionality… Different groups within an organization can use their budget to contribute features or functionality to the web platform. They can also team up with other groups to pool dollars for more complex features. When the feature development is done, it’s added to the web platform and available for all. Using this open source principle can provide mutual benefits to groups within an organization. 5
#1 BETTER SPENT BUDGETS “ The ability to test and develop a feature once and reuse it repeatedly.” 6
Problem Groups don’t want to give up their budget to support the platform 7
02 Reduce Tech Debt Long-term vs. Short-term Thinking 8
#2 REDUCE TECHNICAL DEBT Collaboration is Key Reduce the need for rebuilding or adding functionality in the future… Many organizations strive to reduce technical debt. Implementing a comprehensive web platform and using open source principles can help reduce technical debt. This happens by allowing development teams to think fully about how a feature impacts not just the group building it but the wider organization. This, plus collaboration with other groups within an organization, can help reduce the need for rebuilding or adding functionality in the future. 9
Problem Internal competitiveness can crush this type of collaboration and thinking 10
03 Faster Time To Market Start From a Solid Foundation 11
#3 FASTER TIME TO MARKET Build Smarter, Not Harder Start from 80% complete instead of 0% complete… One of the terms we hear frequently is, “Faster time to market.” Everyone wants to get their thing out quicker and easier. This is often a benefit of an organizational web platform, as internal groups can reuse existing, tested, and proven features and functionality instead of building their own from scratch. If your group is starting a project, and it could start from 80% complete instead of 0% complete, would you do it? I’m thinking yes. Now pile on the superhero feeling of adding needed functionality for other users. It’s a win-win! 12
04 Release Excitement Get Users Excited About Releases! 13
04 RELEASE EXCITEMENT Get users invested in when an update comes out! 14
05 A Core Team & Governance Propelling Your Organization Forward 15
#5 A CORE TEAM & GOVERNANCE A Core Team To Lead Ensure new features and functionality are added wisely… The core team needs to be supported by strong organizational governance. This governance will provide groups within the organization with a common direction and the organizational support they need for success. This organizational governance can mimic open source governance and principles in several ways. The most basic and highest level principle is community and the idea of working together toward a common goal. 16
Helpful Resources Links to slides & other items referenced in this presentation. Enjoy! https://picozzi.com/dcpitt2023 17
Let’s Chat! Stop by EPAM’s booth #421 to meet with our Drupal experts today! 18
Thank you! For more information, contact John Picozzi Solution Architect [email protected] @JohnPicozzi 19
Recently, I was working on a greenfield project using open source software within a large organization whose leadership was interested in learning what had led to the project’s success and how they could apply those same principles to other teams across the organization. Upon reflection I started to see similarities between our team’s ways of working and open source communities and development. Join me to discuss some insights into how Open Source principles can help organizations save money, reduce technical debt, and bust internal silos.
Resources
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
-
Think Locally, Build Globally - How Drupal is powering headless omni-channel web platforms
Presentation at Florida Drupal Camp
-
5 open source principles that help organizational governance
Post on OpenSource.com
