Business Success with Open Source

Identify Your Internal Constraints

Before diving into any outbound FOSS contribution program, always look internally first. What constraints will you be working with inside your organization? If you don’t learn about these before you get started, you’re setting the initiative up for failure, and failed initiatives don’t often get a second chance.

The Budget Constraint

The constraint people usually think of first is budget: how much money do we think we’ll need, and how much is available?

If you’ve ever worked with budgets, you know that a lot of complexity hides behind those two deceptively simple questions. Their answers also are interdependent. You may be able to use your Need estimate to influence how much your company makes Available. Conversely, ...