Open Stack

Doug Hellmann wrote:
> 
> We are consistently presented with the challenges of trying to convince
> our large community to change direction, collaborate across team
> boundaries, and work on features that require integration of several
> services. Other threads with candidate questions include discussions of
> some significant technical changes people would like to see in
> OpenStack's implementation. Taking one of those ideas, or one of your
> own idea, as inspiration, consider how you would make the change happen
> if it was your responsibility to do so.
> 
> Which change management approaches that we have used unsuccessfully in
> the past did you expect to see work? Why do you think they failed?
> 
> Which would you like to try again? How would you do things differently?
> 
> What new suggestions do you have for addressing this recurring
> challenge?

I think it takes three ingredients: some individual(s) leading the
change, over-communication, and leadership.

As other mentioned we won't go anywhere if there is nobody signed up to
drive the work. Cross-project work is going orthogonal to our
organizational structure, so it requires extra work (something we should
continue to fix, but that's another topic). Without someone committed to
drive that against all odds, it just won't happen by fiat.

You also need to over-communicate: in an open source community, people
are often more annoyed at feeling excluded from the decision, than at
the decision itself.

Finally you need a leadership group to say that this large goal is
desirable for the group -- that is where the TC comes in, and I would
say we need to do more of it.

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)