Business Success with Open Source

Placement of an OSPO Within an Org Chart

When forming an OSPO, a common mistake is to place it anywhere that has budget or space within the org chart rather than where the team can be most effective, showing an unfortunately typical lack of strategic insight and thinking on the part of the company. Sometimes, rather than intentionally forming an OSPO, the company instead accretes one—like a pearl forming around an irritant in an oyster—slowly growing around a single individual so passionate about FOSS that they’ll do anything to get the company to do more with it. In these cases, like a pearl, the OSPO will sit in the dark where it forms until or unless someone moves it somewhere it can shine.

Handled correctly, the placement of the OSPO within ...