Tony Wasserman

Whilethenumberofopensourcesoftwareprojectsandrelated businesses has grown rapidly, it remains difficult for those unfamiliar with open source to take advantage of what it has to offer. Newcomers often have a difficult time finding suitable projects to use, understanding the rules imposed by their licenses, and making contributions of their own to an open source project. Large high-tech companies have led this rapid growth and have cooperated to produce “best practices” guidelines to help others… Show more

Whilethenumberofopensourcesoftwareprojectsandrelated businesses has grown rapidly, it remains difficult for those unfamiliar with open source to take advantage of what it has to offer. Newcomers often have a difficult time finding suitable projects to use, understanding the rules imposed by their licenses, and making contributions of their own to an open source project. Large high-tech companies have led this rapid growth and have cooperated to produce “best practices” guidelines to help others improve their internal governance of open source practices and their participation in the larger community. However, many individuals and organizations that could benefit from open source software, as well as contribute to open source projects, face barriers to doing so. This paper takes their perspective and informally presents these key issues and roadblocks, as well as addressing some of the questions that they often raise in their efforts to find, adopt, and use open source software. Show less

We use Grounded Theory to study the evolution of requirements practices of 16 software startups as they grow and introduce new products and services. These startups operate in a dynamic environment, with significant time and market pressure, and rarely have time for systematic requirements analysis. Our theory describes the evolution of practice along six dimensions that emerged as relevant to their requirements activities: requirements artifacts, knowledge management, requirements-related… Show more

We use Grounded Theory to study the evolution of requirements practices of 16 software startups as they grow and introduce new products and services. These startups operate in a dynamic environment, with significant time and market pressure, and rarely have time for systematic requirements analysis. Our theory describes the evolution of practice along six dimensions that emerged as relevant to their requirements activities: requirements artifacts, knowledge management, requirements-related roles, planning, technical debt and product quality. Beyond the relationships among the six dimensions, our theory also explains the turning points that drove the evolution along these dimensions. These changes are reactive, rather than planned, suggesting an overall pragmatic lightness, i.e., flexibility, in the startups’ evolution towards engineering practices for requirements. Our theory organizes knowledge about evolving requirements practice in maturing startups, and provides practical insights for startups’ assessing their own evolution as they face challenges to their growth. Our research also suggests that a startup’s evolution along the six dimensions is not fundamental to its success, but has significant effects on their product, their employees and the company. Show less

This paper describes the OSSpal project, which is aimed at helping companies, government agencies, and other organizations find high quality free and open source software (FOSS) that meets their needs. OSSpal is a successor to the Business Readiness Rating (BRR), combining quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures for software in various categories. Instead of a purely numeric calculated score OSSpal adds curation of high-quality FOSS projects and individual user reviews of these… Show more

This paper describes the OSSpal project, which is aimed at helping companies, government agencies, and other organizations find high quality free and open source software (FOSS) that meets their needs. OSSpal is a successor to the Business Readiness Rating (BRR), combining quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures for software in various categories. Instead of a purely numeric calculated score OSSpal adds curation of high-quality FOSS projects and individual user reviews of these criteria. Unlike the BRR project, for which there was no automated support, OSSpal has an operational, publicly available website where users may search by project name or category, and enter ratings and reviews for projects. Show less

This presentation was used for a Keynote talk at the 2015 OpenSym conference. Rather than simply focusing on teamwork in software projects, the talk had a broader perspective, addressing the areas that affect team success in other fields as well. Shared goals and setting expectations for teamwork were identified as factors that greatly improve the chances of success, while personal and organizational disruptions, cultural differences, and unrealistic resources were noted as areas that are… Show more

This presentation was used for a Keynote talk at the 2015 OpenSym conference. Rather than simply focusing on teamwork in software projects, the talk had a broader perspective, addressing the areas that affect team success in other fields as well. Shared goals and setting expectations for teamwork were identified as factors that greatly improve the chances of success, while personal and organizational disruptions, cultural differences, and unrealistic resources were noted as areas that are often barriers to success. Show less

This invited talk contrasts the way that requirements are handled in startups vs. the way that they are handled in established companies. With the pressure on bringing out a Minimum Viable Product to build users/customers, startups rely on customer development and a succession of releases of the product, forgoing formal documentation of requirements.

This paper describes the recent evolution of business strategies used by companies offering products and services based on free and open source software (FOSS). The primary focus is on companies that develop and release products under an open source license. The paper compares their practices with traditional proprietary software companies and with community-based open source projects, and identifies growing overlaps between the different kinds of software companies. Finally, the paper… Show more

This paper describes the recent evolution of business strategies used by companies offering products and services based on free and open source software (FOSS). The primary focus is on companies that develop and release products under an open source license. The paper compares their practices with traditional proprietary software companies and with community-based open source projects, and identifies growing overlaps between the different kinds of software companies. Finally, the paper describes the likely impact of recent technology developments in mobile and cloud computing on open source software and related business. Show less

Presentation from Conference Keynote talk focusing on the tools and processes used by small startups creating web and mobile applications. The presentation shows the strong differences between the agile processes used by startups and the heavyweight processes used by large organizations building and maintaining large systems with a multi-year release cycle.

The growth of the Internet has had a huge impact on the software industry, from the ease of creating new businesses to the processes that companies use to develop, distribute, and support their products. Software architectures and platforms for web applications differ significantly from traditional desktop and client-server applications, and require a new generation of programming languages and development tools. Developers make extensive use of open source software, particularly at the… Show more

The growth of the Internet has had a huge impact on the software industry, from the ease of creating new businesses to the processes that companies use to develop, distribute, and support their products. Software architectures and platforms for web applications differ significantly from traditional desktop and client-server applications, and require a new generation of programming languages and development tools. Developers make extensive use of open source software, particularly at the infrastructure level of their applications. Development teams can easily use Internet-based tools for collaboration, thus facilitating distributed organizations. Product marketing now emphasizes attracting prospective customers to the company’s website. Companies can release products over the Internet, or provide a hosted web application, both of which are more efficient and less expensive ways to sell their products. Companies can also support their products over the Internet through online discussion forums, often with users helping one another. Ongoing advances in mobile and cloud computing, styles of user interaction, and software business models are certain to have a large effect, leading to innovative new products from both new and established companies. (Contact me for a copy of this article.) Show less