Open-Source community and Outsourcing are poles apart, but the most striking thing they have in common is the dependence on their modes of communication. The Open-Source development communities rely more on the asynchronous modes of communication such as e-mails, online forums, discussion sites, bug trackers as compared to the synchronous modes of communication such as phones, chats etc. used by Outsourcing personnel.
The key to success in today’s scenario rests in the skill management techniques of handling multitasking operations better. That is where the Open-Source communities score over others. The efficiency in handling the asynchronous modes of communication better than the synchronous ones have made Open-Source users all over the world more competent enough to handle a number of operations at one point of time. Another reason is the required presence of the entire team, issues of cultural preferences, creation of record for various events and various other codes of conduct decrease the functionality quotient of Outsourcers who believe in synchronous modes of communication.
The learning cues which Outsourcers can inherit from Open-Source Communities are;
- Knowledge - The merit of an individual’s work and his process is known to anyone who is interested in it.
- Clarity - All the analysis, discussions, conclusions and decisions are known to everyone and the reason is also mentioned.
- Records - All the work done by any individual, the method, the timing etc. can be known by anyone who is interested to learn about it.
- Empowerment - All the users have the same rights and there is no hierarchy involved.
Along with the above, issues like time zone formats, language and culture concerns are reduced because of the advantage of converting the codes into different languages and the virtual presence of its members. It is often heard that it is difficult to get answers for a few questions on the Outsourcing front, but Open-Source community developers are empowered enough to literally lose their sleep in the pursuit of an answer. The motivations levels of these Open-Source users can be duly acknowledged by the Outsourcers and further implemented in their organization.
Outsource personnel need to amplify a motivation level of high order which would result in their quest of searching more than the optimal solution. Thus, it is the interdependence of the Open-Source community which has developed and implemented those highly efficient codes. It will have to be a dynamic process for outsourcing organizations across the globe to develop and implement a system where a lot of focus is made on parameters such as motivation, interdependence & empowerment instead of the low wage rewards which may seem fruitful in the short jog, but do not help even a tad in the marathon.
Praval, the author of this article is a freelance writer/blogger and evangelist. He writes reviews and stuff related to Cloud computing, Office 2.0, Startup ecosystem, Wordpress, Linux, Open Source Software, Life hacks and technology in general.
Praval Singh posted this article
on Wed, Nov 12th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Categorized under Featured, Open Source and has the following tags
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One eminent individual from the Industry (I forgot who) had once remarked how the development of the Linux Kernel (read : Open source project), totally defies all the rules for a proper SDLC in proprietary enterprises and yet is superior ( in terms of quality as well as timely releases, etc.) to most of their products.
I think that pretty much sums it all.
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