Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead (Roberto Di Cosmo)

Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead

Computer Science ProfessorUniversity Paris Diderot

http://www.dicosmo.org

[email protected]

March 26th, 2009

Roberto Di Cosmo Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead

http://www.dicosmo.org

[email protected]

Free Software : a reminder

Free (french : gratuit) :software you do not pay for (today)

Free (french : libre) :software with 4 rights

usestudy and modifydistributedistribute sources (even modified)(see for example http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php).

There are obligations too, according to thelicence : GPL/BSD/Mozilla/X, etc.


http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

Economy

Reminder :

economics : the study of how society chooses to allocate scarceresources to produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.

Ruffin, Gregory, “Principles of Economics”, 1990

Without scarcity, there is no economy.Let’s remember this when revisiting the software industry . . .


Economy

Reminder :



Without scarcity, there is no economy.

Let’s remember this when revisiting the software industry . . .


Economy

Reminder :



Without scarcity, there is no economy.Let’s remember this when revisiting the software industry . . .


Software economy, old style

proprietary software

based on an artificial “scarcity” of copies of a piece of software . . .

This follows a push approach :

identify a market

develop a “one size fits all” software solution

sell licences to a lot of users, . . . if you can

make sure the users will need new versions, often. . .






identify a market









identify a market









identify a market









identify a market





Remember this ?

It is from the 1980’s, and yet we still see it happen too often !


Remember this ?



Remember this ?



Remember this ?



Remember this ?



Remember this ?



Remember this ?

It is from the 1980’s, and yet we still see it happen too often !Roberto Di Cosmo Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead

Free Software and innovation

In the proprietary software world, the frontiers among architects,programmers, testers, service providers, educators and users arerigid, by necessity.

The acces to source code given by Free Software may blur them !

This does not happen by itself !

Phases of a successful FS : Martin Michlmayr (ex Debian leader)

Cathedral phase Transition phase Bazaar phase

Original “idea”Project AuthorCore developersUnix philosophy

⇒”Interest”PrototypeModular design

⇒

DistributeddevelopmentCommunityParallel maintenancePeer reviews



In the proprietary software world, the frontiers among architects,programmers, testers, service providers, educators and users arerigid, by necessity.The acces to source code given by Free Software may blur them !






⇒







Cathedral phase

Transition phase Bazaar phase



⇒







Cathedral phase Transition phase

Bazaar phase



⇒










⇒










⇒










⇒










⇒










⇒



Software economy, new style

free software

removes the “scarcity” of copies, exposing the other scarceresources : know-how, infrastructure, process, industrialization,customization skills etc.

This follows a pull approach :

identify a need

develop a software prototype

build a community

set up an ecosystem, with users, developers, architects,educators, service providers, cooperating

This requires all the members of the ecosystem to understand therules, and follow them.



free software



identify a need


build a community





free software



identify a need


build a community





free software



identify a need


build a community





free software



identify a need


build a community





free software



identify a need


build a community




Free Software Lessons vs. Lean principles : similar culture

Value

Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’spersonal itch.

Customer first

Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route torapid code improvement and effective debugging.

Removing waste

Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what torewrite (and reuse).

Perfection, well. . . fix it fast

Release early, release often.Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Lessons from E. S. Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”,1997



Value


Customer first


Removing waste







Value


Customer first


Removing waste







Value


Customer first


Removing waste




Lessons from E. S. Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”,1997 Roberto Di Cosmo Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead

Some figures

Evolution of file number in the Linux kernel (G. Robles)


The change

Free Software lessons were easy to follow 10 years ago :

developer and users would often coincide (developers are alsothe users !) . . .

Joke

would our offices be somehow better if the architects were forcedto actually use them ?

Things are changing today : user and developer communities aregrowing steadily !

Can we scale up ?


The change



Joke



Can we scale up ?


The change



Joke



Can we scale up ?


The change



Joke



Can we scale up ?


The challenge

science :develop theory and tools to allow Free Softwarecollaborative development to scale up

education :train tomorrow’s engineers

economy :explain and set up the ecosystems. . .


Focus on science

Free Software is making software artefacts transparent :

no artificial barriers among architectural layers. . .

theoretical possibility to follow the flow of computation fromthe more abstract layers down to the moving bits in thehardware

new levels of quality assurance and certification can beexpected

we need theory and tools to make all this process lean.

Industry should invest in Free Software fundamental research, assoon as possible.


Focus on science








Focus on science








Focus on science








Focus on science








Mancoosi technology preview : visualizing Systems ofSystems

GNU/Linux software distributions : probably the most complexsystem of systems on the planet

HOW can you visualize such a system of systems ?


Mancoosi technology preview : visualizing Systems ofSystems

GNU/Linux software distributions : probably the most complexsystem of systems on the planet

HOW can you visualize such a system of systems ?Roberto Di Cosmo Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead

Draw a graph, no deep knowledge

kde-amusements and kde-toys in Debian 3.1 (aka sarge, 2005)were unnecessary components, overlapping kde-games andkde-edu.

They are waste, and are gone today (2009).Should be easy to spot, only 244 components are concerned !Can you see this fact here ?



kde-amusements and kde-toys in Debian 3.1 (aka sarge, 2005)were unnecessary components, overlapping kde-games andkde-edu.They are waste, and are gone today (2009).

Should be easy to spot, only 244 components are concerned !Can you see this fact here ?



kde-amusements and kde-toys in Debian 3.1 (aka sarge, 2005)were unnecessary components, overlapping kde-games andkde-edu.They are waste, and are gone today (2009).Should be easy to spot, only 244 components are concerned !

Can you see this fact here ?



kde-amusements and kde-toys in Debian 3.1 (aka sarge, 2005)were unnecessary components, overlapping kde-games andkde-edu.They are waste, and are gone today (2009).Should be easy to spot, only 244 components are concerned !Can you see this fact here ?


Let’s try a more systemic approach

Here is a graph of strong dominators for the KDE subsystem :

See the problem, now ?

More on this at http://www.mancoosi.org


http://www.mancoosi.org

Let’s try a more systemic approach

Here is a graph of strong dominators for the KDE subsystem :

See the problem, now ?

More on this at http://www.mancoosi.org


http://www.mancoosi.org

Let me say this again. . .

We need to invest in Free Software fundamental research,as soon as possible.


Technology

Lean principles, Open Source, and the road ahead (Roberto Di Cosmo)