Adoption of OSS components: a goal-oriented approach

Open Source Software (OSS) has become a strategic asset for a number of reasons, such as short time-to-market software delivery, reduced development and maintenance costs, and its customization capabilities. Therefore, organizations are increasingly becoming OSS adopters, either as a result of a strategic decision or because it is almost unavoidable nowadays, given the fact that most commercial software also relies at some extent in OSS infrastructure. The way in which organizations adopt OSS affects and shapes their businesses. Therefore, knowing the impact of different OSS adoption strategies in the context of an organization may help improving the processes undertaken inside this organization and ultimately pave the road to strategic moves. In this paper, we propose to model OSS adoption strategies using a goal-oriented notation, in which different actors state their objectives and dependencies on each other. These models describe the consequences of adopting one such strategy or another: which are the strategic and operational goals that are supported, which are the resources that emerge, etc. The models rely on an OSS ontology, built upon a systematic literature review, which comprises the activities and resources that characterise these strategies. Different OSS adoption strategy models arrange these ontology elements in diverse ways. In order to assess which is the OSS adoption strategy that better fits the organization needs, the notion of model coverage is introduced, which allows to measure the degree of concordance among every strategy with the model of the organization by comparing the respective models. The approach is illustrated with an example of application in a big telecommunications company.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Managing risk in open source software adoption

By 2016 an estimated 95% of all commercial software packages will include Open Source Software (OSS). This extended adoption is yet not avoiding failure rates in OSS projects to be as high as 50%. Inadequate risk management has been identified among the top mistakes to avoid when implementing OSS-based solutions. Understanding, managing and mitigating OSS adoption risks is therefore crucial to avoid potentially significant adverse impact on the business. In this position paper we portray a short report of work in progress on risk management in OSS adoption processes. We present a risk-aware technical decision-making management platform integrated in a business-oriented decision-making framework, which together support placing technical OSS adoption decisions into organizational, business strategy as well as the broader OSS community context. The platform will be validated against a collection of use cases coming from different types of organizations: big companies, SMEs, public administration, consolidated OSS communities and emergent small OSS products.Postprint (published version

Modelling and applying OSS adoption strategies

Increasing adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) in information system engineering has led to the emergence of different OSS business strategies that affect and shape organizations’ business models. In this context, organizational modeling needs to reconcile efficiently OSS adoption strategies with business strategies and models. In this paper, we propose to embed all the knowledge about each OSS adoption strategy into an i* model that can be used in the intentional modeling of the organization. These models describe the consequences of adopting one such strategy or another: which are the business goals that are supported, which are the resources that emerge, etc. To this aim, we first enumerate the main existing OSS adoption strategies, next we formulate an ontology that comprises the activities and resources that characterise these strategies, then based on the experience of 5 industrial partners of the RISCOSS EU-funded project, we explore how these elements are managed in each strategy and formulate the corresponding model using the i* framework.Peer Reviewe

Unveiling the universe The UK's future in particle physics and astronomy

The beginning of the new millennium is an exciting and challenging period for fundamental physics. We expect to make major discoveries that will revolutionise our understanding of Nature. The next generation of highly sensitive telescopes covering a range of wavelengths (both ground-based and in space) will give us the clearest window yet onto the origin, structure and evolution of the Universe. We will also learn whether life is likely to be common outside the Earth. The new particle physics experiments proposed will lead to much deeper insights into the nature of matter, space and timeAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/35593 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Managing risk in open source software adoption

By 2016 an estimated 95% of all commercial software packages will include Open Source Software (OSS). This extended adoption is yet not avoiding failure rates in OSS projects to be as high as 50%. Inadequate risk management has been identified among the top mistakes to avoid when implementing OSS-based solutions. Understanding, managing and mitigating OSS adoption risks is therefore crucial to avoid potentially significant adverse impact on the business. In this position paper we portray a short report of work in progress on risk management in OSS adoption processes. We present a risk-aware technical decision-making management platform integrated in a business-oriented decision-making framework, which together support placing technical OSS adoption decisions into organizational, business strategy as well as the broader OSS community context. The platform will be validated against a collection of use cases coming from different types of organizations: big companies, SMEs, public administration, consolidated OSS communities and emergent small OSS products