A lesson from open source

Yesterday I attended the Columbia Area Linux User Group meeting. The speaker was MacKenzie Morgan, a contributor to the Ubuntu project. (Specifically, her title is "MOTU", for "Master of the Universe".)

The Ubuntu prject is run much like a professional development project. With almost 150 contributors, they use tools and processes to coordinate the effort of people. For tools, they use IRC, version control, build scripts, and wiki pages. For techniques, they have "freeze points" for several decisions including tool sets, packages, text strings, UI components, and code. These notions parallel the typical commercial effort, although with perhaps more use of automation between tools and fewer meetings.

Two bug-fixing techniques are worth mentioning. First, bugs are fixed by a team but not assigned to specific individuals. Developers work on the bugs that they think that they can fix. (In the commercial world, bugs are assigned to individuals based on a manager's assessment of individual capabilities.) The Ubuntu approach seems to have less stress.

The second notion involves the code fix for bugs. In the Ubuntu project, defects are fixed in the project under development and then back-ported to prior projects, including the "current release". In commercial projects, the "current release" is fixed first and then the fix is migrated to the version in progress. (Usually. Sometimes the fix is not migrated into the next release.) The Ubuntu approach ensures that the next release has all of the fixes.

Commercial projects could learn a lot from the Ubuntu project, especially those commercial projects that are outsourcing large portions of their coding. Most of the Ubuntu project is aggregating packages for deployment and ensuring that the packages work together. With outsourcing, a commercial project is in a similar role, aggregating components and ensuring that they work together.

Oh, there is one other difference with the Ubuntu project: The work is done (mostly) by volunteers. This also changes the dynamics of the project. (You can't force someone to meet a schedule by threatening to fire them, for example.) Yet Ubuntu delivers releases twice a year, on time and with high quality.