In the open source community, experience, reputation, and recognition serve as currency. People join projects for a number of reasons, but no matter why someone is involved, high expectations are placed on receiving fair credit for work and on a person's performance. There is no tolerance for overstating ability, self-serving actions, or ambiguous intentions. A true leader will set an example for the community by providing clear communication and actionable items, and will put measures in place to maintain the integrity of development work.

While it is true that people of all skill levels get involved in OSS projects, the leader is expected to ensure that high-quality work is not undermined by novice inadequacies. There is a natural pecking order among the ranks, and protocols must be in place to prevent unknown agents from destroying the community's long-term achievements.

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When a new developer joins an open source community and is not preceded by a lofty reputation, some sort of promotion system should be in place. For example, new members can be introduced to an existing code base and simultaneously prove their worth through bug fixing, quality assurance, forum moderation, and documentation. Dedicated and talented individuals will be recognized by those who depend on these support efforts and be given specific coding assignments. Opinionated and vocal volunteers can still be heard, but are less likely to steer efforts in a counterproductive or tangential direction.

In a true Bazaar setting, a project manager can be pulled in many directions at once due to essentially political views from factions within the team who each claim to know what the proper approach to the problem is. This is one source of trouble with open source product development that can only be overcome by thoughtful consideration of suggestions and keeping sight of the projects goals and deliverables.

That being said, many issues regarding development can be overcome through ample, accurate, and clear documentation. Find one location for each type of collaboration, and keep it consistent. A lot of shuffling around of information leads to conflicting instructions and makes it difficult for volunteers to know where and how to communicate with the community. Keep current status reports publicly available, and maintain a single, stable location for distribution and tracking systems.

If it were meant to be...
An OSS manager must be focused on productive work and strive to be more than just a firefighter. Open source projects tend to be organic in nature, leading to emotional and political involvement from volunteers trying to do their part to direct the evolution of the solution. To produce usable, useful software, project maintenance systems have to be upheld, and a solid communication structure will allow a Bazaar-style project to grow and change within a stable infrastructure.

What kind of problems have you encountered in dealing with open-source projects? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts.
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