Hi Oliver, > Why does the loose development process of OS work?
I think you should distinguish between OSS on private time and OS done by companies. I guess there's much more hierarchy in the latter case. My first answer to the question is a negative one: no other process could work. Some people are willing to contribute to OSS on their own time and schedule, but hardly anyone would agree to fit into the lower levels of a hierarchy for fun. > Or more in detail: Why are almost all commercial projects organized as > a strict hierarchy while most OS projects work with a loose > organisation or even none at all. Commercial projects are organized in strict hierarchies because the job needs to get done in time, and somebody has to take responsibility for that. OSS is ready "when it's ready", and there you have the luxury of waiting until somebody is willing to take the responsibility and drive things forward. > Additionally, roles are always > switched on demand. This is something that would never be done in a > classically organized project. Don't know what "roles" exactly you mean. I've switched from developer to more architectural roles in professional development projects. I wouldn't switch to a project manager role because I don't like to track MS Project plans, but within my skills I'm comfortable to do what I see needs to be done. If that's development, or architecture, or mentoring, or teaching, or writing documentation, I hardly care. As long as there's minimal paper work ;-) In a commercial environment it is of course easier to hide behind your job description. Cover your ass, don't take responsibility you don't have to so you won't get blamed if things fail, don't be the messenger of bad news, and so on. OSS on private time means you care about the project and want it to succeed, so you're more likely to do what you feel should be done, rather than see the project go down. There may also be an issue with careers - in OSS you're less likely to meet someone up the hierarchy who doesn't want to let you pass. Or maybe I was just lucky so far. cheers, Roland --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
