Discussion about middle management and product management

General tips

• Be specific about context; companies can differ in different ways
  • e.g., style, governance (traditional vs. modern)

The middle management problem

• Middle management is given their own set of KPIs and objectives; their employees who are participating in inner source are, in a sense, diverting precious resources to activities that do not contribute to the middle management's KPIs. This pressure/disapproval can cause (some) employees to not engage in inner source contributions to other projects.

Brainstormed solutions

• Explain to middle management how it benefits their BU (some inner source projects may do so directly; but this advice may not otherwise hold).
• Good developers can move to where they do have permission and support to engage in inner sourcing.
• Give the middle management company wide KPIs and goals that inner sourcing contribute to so that the MM will support inner sourcing.
• Let MM take initiatives to make this work.
• Use their evil for good.
• Make MM a mentor or coach.
• Have upper management plan for 80% capacity rather than 100%.

How to communicate with middle management

• "It is the future of SW: inner sourcing will make your company more attractive to talent, it will be involved in something like open source, it will help retain people."
• Use concise, factual communication but include buzzwords
• Address MM fears
• Need to find the right language to talk with non-developers
• Think like a services company--invest in your people (through their inner source participation)
• "Can you afford to train them? Can you afford to train them and have them leave? Can you afford not to train them and have them stay?"
• Like with a sail boat, don't tack into the wind. Sometimes it is better to loosen your control for a while to avoid capsizing.

Observations

• Comment: Agile has self-organizing teams (like inner source)

Anecdote

• Completely self-organizing holocracy is possible (but has a lot of downsides)

Thoughts for later down the road

• Eventually, what is the middle management role in inner sourcing? Inner source developers are self-organizing; do they really need much guidance from middle management?
• MM realign staff to new objectives
• What makes the company profitable? Would developers and MM know? (an argument that self-organizing may not be enough)
• Daniel Pink motivation; tell developers WHY should they do something. Extend the trust.

How much time do developers spend in inner source?

• 10% is only effective as a teaching exercise
  • Let MM take a tour to see how it works first hand (essential if you want to make them a mentor or coach)
• 20% minimum participation
• 50% ore member

What you use inner sourcing for

• tools and APIs, live demonstrators: inner sourcing is easier to do for innovation purposes; it is a perfect match for managing chaos.
• It is harder to ensure that SW is ready for real production release on a schedule.

Product management

• PdM enter a contract with penalties for non-delivery
• Delivery of content on time is key
• Do you control the # of engineers? Needed to promise content on time.

Project management

• Does project management work with inner sourcing?
• PjM ensure that the product is delivered on time.
• Can inner source work for product development? With visibility and the open collaboration model? Yes, there is a proof point from a large company.
  • DRAFT Pattern: Contained inner source enables collaborative product development