[gdal-dev] (article) social organization of the open source R project

[Jan Hartmann]

I would everyone advise to read

Frederick P. Brooks: The Mythical Man-Month. Essays on Software Engineering

Brooks was manager of IBM's OS/360, the classical mammoth operating 
system of the nineteen-sixties. He wrote this book in 1975 (it is still 
in print) about what can go wrong in designing large software systems. 
Characteristically, the cover shows a few dinosaurs slowly sinking under 
in a morass. He also advises about how software projects *should* be 
organised, and it is eery to see how Open Software projects work exactly 
along these lines nowadays. Some quotes from the 1995 reprint:

(p. 30) Very good professional programmers are *ten times* as productive 
as ordinary ones at the same training and two-year experience level.

(p. 32) Software projects should be organized like a surgical team 
rather than a hog-butchering team, that is, instead of each member 
cutting away on the problem, one does the cutting and the others give hm 
every support that will enhance his effectiveness and productivity. A 
small sharp core team is best.

(p. 44) Conceptual integrity is *the* most important consideration in 
system design. It dictates that the design must proceed from one mind, 
or from a very small number of agreeing resonant minds

(p. 62) The manual is the *external* specification of the product. It 
describes and prescribes every detail of what the user sees. As such, it 
is the chief product of the architect (software engineer)

(p. 111) Writing decisions down is essential

(p. 169) Make your programs self-documenting

(p. 231) Good cooking takes time; some tasks cannot be hurried without 
spoiling the result..

(p. 234) The project manager's best friend is his daily adversary, the 
independent product-testing organisation (nowadays the mailing list).

(p. 257) Conceptual integrity is central to product quality. Having  a 
system architect is the most important single step toward conceptual 
integrity

Last but not least, the book is beautifully written. Everyone who wants 
to learn writing good essayistic English should have a long, thoughtful 
look at it.

Jan

On 6-1-2010 6:35, Michael Sumner wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I thought this article would be of interest to the gdal-dev community:
>
> See page 5, "Aspects of the Social Organization and Trajectory of the
> R Project".
>
> http://journal.r-project.org/archive/2009-2/RJournal_2009-2.pdf
>
> In particular I found this interesting:
>
> "Many open-source projects, such as the Linux operating system, have
> strongly hierarchical structures, and some, such as Perl, revolve
> around a central individual. . . . Although I haven’t formally
> surveyed the many existing open source projects, the R Project is
> apparently unusual in its flat formal organization of independent
> volunteers. This structure has attracted a remarkably talented and
> competent group of individuals, but, as I will argue later in this
> aper, it poses challenges for moving the R Project forward."
>
> Regards, Mike.
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