Understanding the InnerSource Checklist

Chapter 7. From Internal Silos to Internal Transparency

TL;DR

• Team divisions tend to create silos of information that hamper decision-making.

• Transparency can be reintroduced through rules about documenting activities and requirements for meetings on important decisions.

Where Did Silos Come From?

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar has proposed a theory that a social animal’s neocortex size limits that animal’s comfortable social group size. Dunbar’s number suggests that humans are best able to handle approximately 150 relationships in a larger sense, and tend to maintain stronger ties to smaller groups of around 50.¹ This maps back to tribes and their sizes. Many in the corporate world have noticed similar size limitations when creating organizational charts. Silos are a natural extension of those hierarchical situations. They also evolve out of specialization, and from these groupings tribal knowledge is born.

With silos, people do not need to care as much about consensus. They make communication and permissions easier because they divide people into smaller groups. And dividing people into assigned groups can make accountability easier. If something goes wrong with security, people can blame the security group.

What’s Wrong with Silos?

As you can guess, communication between the silos can become difficult, and problems can cascade through the company. Communicating over a wall never has the same emotional impact on people. Getting things right matters more when you ...