To make sure you realize all the benefits of open source, run these simple background checks on an open source project.
During the economic downturn, enterprises increasingly adopted open source systems due to their significant cost advantages and their liberal license policies. All open source projects, by definition, provide the end user with certain perpetual rights and freedoms in using, studying, modifying, and redistributing the product. However, there is a lot of inconsistency in terms of the product quality, the governance model, and the availability of support. Thus, when selecting open source components for your enterprise, it is important to do some background checks to ensure the open source product you have selected is compatible with your enterprise business model and IT standards. Below are questions you can ask to evaluate open source maturity.
1: Are the open source license terms compatible with my business requirements?
Open source is mainly protected by copyright law, and the license provides the basis for the rights you have on the software. To be classified as open source. any product needs to adhere to the four freedoms: to use, to study, to redistribute, and to improve. However, licenses often include other terms that might be incompatible with certain business models. For example, the popular GPL license asks that any improvements and derivative works you create also be released under the same quid pro quo terms.
While this seems like a reasonable condition and will be not an issue for generic enterprise use, it can be a deal breaker for a proprietary product company that wants to include a GPL component in its product. Thus, it is important to make sure you understand the terms of the open source license before you adopt a component into your enterprise. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Open Source Initiative (OSI) serve as guides to open source licenses, and both have pages that validate and catalogue open source licenses.
2: What is the strength of the community?
An open source project is not just about the code, but also about the open community surrounding and sustaining the project. These communities can range from the lone teen developer to a single organization to complex diverse multi-entity communities, such as found in Linux and Firefox.
A well known open source law demonstrated first in Linux is that “with enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow.” What this means is given a large enough critical mass of people in the community testing, maintaining, reviewing, and fixing the code, bugs and security vulnerabilities become less of a problem. A large active, diverse, and responsive community is always a key indicator of the health and sustainability of an open source project.
3: How well is the product adopted by users?
The test of any open source project is how well it has been adopted by various user groups and organizations. Many of the mature open source projects showcase various clients who have adopted and are using their product. This gives you some assurances that the product will deliver on its promises, especially if you find an existing client similar to your enterprise.
Probably the best insight you can get into a product is from another user who has been using it for a while. The best projects have a rich community of users with a dedicated mailing list, where you can seek input on the product from a third-party user organization.
4: Can I get a warranty or commercial support if I need it?
All open source project licenses are provided free “as-is” without any warranty. Based on your need, you could also support it to a certain extent internally and depend on voluntary support from the community. Voluntary support is not expected to compete with commercial SLAs, but the general responsiveness of the voluntary support will certainly improve your confidence in investing in the product. However, it will take you only so far.
Most enterprises are looking for a neck to squeeze in terms of commercial support/warranty, and a mature community includes vendors that can deliver to certain service levels. The ideal open source project has multiple vendors involved in the product that provide different types of support from customization to maintenance to 24×7 production assistance.
5: What quality assurance processes exist?
Many of the most popular open source projects now have the maturity and stability to support mission-critical production environments, but there are still many where the stability does not meet the mark. Of course, stability requirements will depend on where you hope to apply the product.
Whatever your needs, it is always good to check the quality assurance (QA) process being followed by the project in its releases. If the quality assurance processes are not up to your organizational standards, you should consider the cost of conducting the missing QA process either internally or by a suitable vendor.
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