case study: what to do when your project outgrows your company

Case Study:What to do when your Project outgrows your companyLars KurthDirector, Open Source, CitrixCommunity Manger, Xen Project lars_kurth

About MeWas a contributor to various projectsWorked in parallel computing, tools, mobile and now virtualizationLong history in change projectsCommunity guy at Symbian FoundationLearned how NOT to do stuff

Community guy for the Xen ProjectWorking for CitrixAccountable to Xen Project Advisory Board

Open Source: Then & Now

The # of Projects is growing

2006 2008 2010 2012 20140

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

Pro

ject

ed

Source: The 2013 Future of Open Source Survey Results

More than 1 Projects Million Today

More Competition

Free Software to Open SourceLate 90’s

Today

Individuals & Hobbyist's Still about Individuals

But, a majority are employees

Companies have a huge stake

More Responsibilityand pressure to succeed

Massively multi-player beauty ContestFeaturesHow many users you haveHow many vendors back youHow you are seen in the press…

Different Management Disciplines

Success = Standing OutIn many areas

Case Study

What is the Xen Project?

An Open Source Hypervisor > 10M Users

Powering some of the biggest Clouds in ProductionAmazon Web Services, Rackspace Public Cloud, Terremark, …

Several sub-projectsXen Hypervisor, XAPI management tools, Mirage OS, Mobile Hypervisor

Linux Foundation Collaborative ProjectSponsored by Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon

10 years old

Fixes that were applied (there may be others) Effect this had

Symptoms Consequences for Xen

What we will look atFour Key Issues

At the end : Reflection & Tools

Symptoms

Unwritten Rules

Undefined Roles

Lack of Upfront Collaboration

Impact

Hard to join the project

Vendors got frustrated

Hard to work with the project

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

XenGovernance

Canonical dropsXen

RedHat dropsXen in RHEL6

Roadmap& Release Management

Another keyvendor nearly dropped Xen

Technical CoordinationTeam

The Project had to Grow up!

1st KVMrelease

Growth potentialwas limited early

Xen becomesLF Collaborative Project

Outcome: Increased Diversity

2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

UPC Spectra Logic Redhat iweb GridCentric Calxeda Fujitsu (Misc) AWS(Academia) John Hopkins University AMD Linaro Oracle NSA Intel (Individual) SuseCitrix

Symptoms and Impact

Inwards focus– Not working with upstreams

(branched kernel and QEMU)– Not working with distros

(users are not “our” problem)

Created “pain for distros”

Intercommunity Friction

Introvert Community

Image Problem

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

The Community had to Open Up

IBM, VMware, Red Hat and CitrixAgree on PVOPS in Linux kernel

Linux Guestsupport for Xen

Linux Hostsupport for Xen

Upstream QEMUcomplete

Activelyworkingwithdistros

OutcomeImproved Relationships & Trust

Xen Developers Care about Users

Xen becoming easier to use

Improved Image in the media and FOSS community

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

Little Communication!

Focus on events for the existing community only

Enough PapersEnough TalksEnough CommunicationBy enough vendors

Xen Books

Competing Projects Excelled at Communication

Change of Guard

Empty Promises

Blog 1 Person

View of the project In 2011Project became an “invisible man”Belief that Xen is not open sourceSlowed the growth of the user base

Perception: the project is “dead” Constant stories in the press that the project is dying

First: Defiance – this is all “Fud”Then: Project started to believe this too

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

Communication v2

Confidence Building

Community Blog

Events v2

Community spokespeople

ImpactProject perception has changedNeutral to positiveNo more “Xen is not OSS / Xen is Dead”New influx of people to the project

2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)0

5

10

15

20

25

30Talks / Events / Orgs

CompaniesCommunity

People

Value

A Few Lessons!Governance Matters

Projects don’t exist in isolation

Poor Marketing and Communication can kill you

Good project sponsors can make a difference

A project needs to constantly evolve

How do you solve a problem like Community?

Multi-discipline Complexity

The “Community Funnel ” Model

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Think of the funnel boundary as apermeable membrane, not a fixedborder

It can take >2 years for changes at the top of the funnel to make a difference at the bottom

The Funnel has feedback loops:what happens at the top can affectthe bottom

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Control the permeability and shape of the funnel

Activities Attributes Events

Project Scope E.g. Xen on ARM, Mirage OS

Increase the width and thus the potential market for the project

How can we influence how theCommunity Funnel works?

Some items are in your control Others - such as what the competition does - are not!

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Example: Factors influencing earlystages of open source software adoption

Documentation

Ease of Use

Training

On-boarding

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

More People drop out

Funnelbecomesnarrower

Negative Feedback:vendors maystop contributing

Bad Press

Example: Negative feedback loop

Some Key PointsThe Community Funnel is an excellent internal sales toolReason: Sales and Business people understand funnels

It helps you understand what is happening

It helps prioritize what to focus onCovers the time dimension : some issues take longer to fix than others

Forces you to consider the “Big Picture”

The Funnel I used

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

2011

Event Presence

Ease of Use

Press

Governance

Social Media

Neutrality

WebSite

Collaboration Values

Brand

Documentation Getting Started

Support

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Platforms for Self Promotion

Business Opportunities

Communication

Extend Project Scope

Distros Training

Diversity

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Event Presence

Ease of Use

Press

Governance

Social Media

Neutrality

WebSite

Collaboration Values

Brand

Documentation Getting Started

Support

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Platforms for Self Promotion

Communication

Extend Project Scope

Business Opportunities

Distros Training

Diversity

Distros

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

ValuesCollaboration

Ease of Use

WebSite Documentation Getting Started

Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities

Press Social Media BrandARM + Mirage OS

Event Presence CommunicationEvent Presence Communication

Diversity

NOW

Today FOSS is more competitive than everTo succeed, a wide range of “community” and

“management” tools need to be applied continuously

Thank You!Please rate the talk!

Flickr:“Messy Apartment” by Ryo Chijiiwa

“The Ivory Tower” by Daniel Parks

“Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthX

Other Images:By Lars Kurth

Acquired from Shutterstock

Credits and ResourcesXen Project:www.xenproject.org wiki.xenproject.orglists.xenproject.orgxenbits.xenproject.org

@xen_org

##xen

Funnel:talesfromthecommunity.wordpress.com