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| 1 | +## Title |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Crossing the InnerSource chasm |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +## Patlet |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Early InnerSource experiments have been successful. Methods that were successful |
| 8 | +convincing early teams stop working though when scaling the initiative. This |
| 9 | +chasm can be crossed by using different methods to reach people at different |
| 10 | +stages of the innovation curve. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +## Problem |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +Often InnerSource programs [start as experiments](../2-structured/start-as-experiment.md). From there |
| 15 | +reaching early adopters and visionaries typically is easy. However the methods |
| 16 | +used to reach these innovation friendly associates typically stop working when |
| 17 | +trying to scale the initiative to pragmatists, conservatives or even sceptics. |
| 18 | +As a result scaling stalls and the entire initiative cannot live up to its |
| 19 | +potential. |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +## Context |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +A corporation with teams on a wide spectrum of innovation friendliness has |
| 24 | +stared an InnerSource initiative. Goals are set, early experiments were |
| 25 | +successful, some teams are successfully using the new collaboration best |
| 26 | +practices. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +However there are teams which are less innovation friendly. Maybe they are more |
| 29 | +risk averse than others. Maybe they prefer stable processes so they can focus on |
| 30 | +their daily engineering challenges. Maybe they prefer to follow a proven path |
| 31 | +instead of running into all of the hurdles that early adopters run into. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +## Forces |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +- The goal is to increase collaboration, reduce duplication, increase knowledge |
| 36 | + sharing. |
| 37 | +- Some teams already adopted a lot of InnerSource best practices, often when |
| 38 | + doing so they had to fix hurdles within the organisation when adopting a more |
| 39 | +collaborative way of working. |
| 40 | +- Some associates refuse to invest time in experimenting with new ways of |
| 41 | + working, preferring a stable environment. |
| 42 | +- There is too much time to get everyone on board individually. |
| 43 | +- Depending on where associates are on the innovation curve they are willing to |
| 44 | + invest different amounts of time to master a new way of working. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +## Solution |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +The [InnerSource guidance group](../1-initial/innersource-guidance-group.md) should make different offers for |
| 49 | +mastering InnerSource depending on where on the innovation scale employees are: |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +### Steps for reaching innovators |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +* Meet with people in person, in 1-on-1 settings, choose those in favour and |
| 54 | +those against and those interested in the topic to create a first network. |
| 55 | +* Start with InnerSource pilots. |
| 56 | +* Create a community of practice that operates according to the principles that |
| 57 | +you want to establish. |
| 58 | +* Bring innovators together so they can support each other. |
| 59 | +* Write down everything that you discuss in person or in calls so others that |
| 60 | +lack the time to join those calls can follow along, provide their input and you |
| 61 | +have a document that you can share with individuals following your trail. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +Write down solutions to any problems you find along the way and share those |
| 64 | +written solutions with people following your trail. |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +### Steps for reaching early adopters/ visionaries |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +* Share results and learnings form retrospectives of InnerSource pilots. |
| 69 | +* Share external material (bonus points if that is material that colleagues |
| 70 | +created earlier: talks, blog articles, book chapters, magazine articles, videos |
| 71 | +etc.) |
| 72 | +* Co-create a document of shared [InnerSource Principles](../1-initial/explicit-innersource-principles.md). |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +### Steps for pragmatists |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +* Offer in-house and online training. |
| 77 | +* Establish local experts on topics in the teams you want to reach. |
| 78 | +* Provide an InnerSource strategy that is backed by higher level management. |
| 79 | +* Provide InnerSource cheat sheet in particular for those new to the company. |
| 80 | +* Provide teams with a self check to scale the initiative (see [Maturity Model](../2-structured/maturity-model.md). |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +### Steps for reaching conservatives |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +* Include InnerSource training material in mandatory training courses for new |
| 85 | +hires. |
| 86 | +* Integrate any tooling and any experiments you have run into established |
| 87 | +company structures (e.g. GitHub/ GitLab instances are under a regular plan, |
| 88 | +accounts are easy to create and integrated with e.g. coporate single sign on |
| 89 | +solutions, in-house support can provide help for these tools). |
| 90 | +* Provide low effort opportunities for learning (e.g. put little riddles in your |
| 91 | +coffee kitchen or whatever the digital alternative is for your company.) |
| 92 | +* Ship bite sized learning pieces to inboxes. |
| 93 | +* Pull in external expertise - sometimes in house expertise counts much less |
| 94 | +than external statements. |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | +### Steps for laggards |
| 97 | + |
| 98 | +* Incorporate InnerSource into career competencies description. |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | +## Resulting context |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +* The InnerSource initiative can reach teams with various innovation |
| 103 | +preferences. |
| 104 | +* Overall InnerSource adoption improves. |
| 105 | +* Friction between teams decreases due to a common understanding. |
| 106 | + |
| 107 | +## Known Instances |
| 108 | + |
| 109 | +TBD |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | +## Status |
| 112 | + |
| 113 | +Initial |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +## References |
| 116 | + |
| 117 | +- Book: [Crossing the Chasm](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61329.Crossing_the_Chasm) - Geoffrey A. Moore, Regis McKenna |
| 118 | +- [Making InnerSource & Developer Experience Real at one of Canada's Top 5 Banks](https://youtu.be/QbJ4VFk8DwA?t=549) - GitHub Universe 2021 - Anthony Vacca |
| 119 | + |
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