Skip to content

Commit ea72e40

Browse files
spierrrrutledgejeffabailey
authored
Generalize the maturity model pattern (#536)
Main Change: Generalize the Solution section. Separate the definition of the maturity model from the self-assessment of the teams. Emphasize that an org that adopts this pattern should review the maturity model and adapt it to their needs, before asking teams to do the self-assessment. Minor changes: * Formatting Forces, Context and Resulting Context as lists, to allow for easier checking * Rewrite Patlet into the 2 sentence form (1 problem + 1 solution) * Adding new Patlet for pattern Maturity Model to the README --------- Co-authored-by: rrrutledge <rrrutledge@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Jeff Bailey <776901+jeffabailey@users.noreply.github.com>
1 parent 4edb780 commit ea72e40

2 files changed

Lines changed: 31 additions & 25 deletions

File tree

‎README.md‎

Lines changed: 1 addition & 1 deletion
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Our mission
3939
* [Contracted Contributor](patterns/2-structured/contracted-contributor.md) - *Associates wanting to contribute to InnerSource are discouraged from doing so by their line management. Relief is provided by formal contracts and agreements.*
4040
* [Dedicated Community Leader](patterns/2-structured/dedicated-community-leader.md) - *Select people with both communications and technical skills to lead the communities to ensure success in starting an InnerSource initiative.*
4141
* [Gig Marketplace](patterns/2-structured/gig-marketplace.md) - *Establish a marketplace by creating an intranet website that lists specific InnerSource project needs as "Gigs" with explicit time and skill requirements. This will enable managers to better understand their employee’s time commitment and professional benefits thereby increasing the likelihood of garnering approval to make InnerSource contributions.*
42-
* [Maturity Model](patterns/2-structured/maturity-model.md) - *Teams have started adopting InnerSource. The practice is spreading to multiple departments. Understanding of what constitutes an InnerSource project are wide spread though. The solution is to provide a maturity model to allow for teams to go through a self check and discover patterns and practices that they are not yet aware of.*
42+
* [Maturity Model](patterns/2-structured/maturity-model.md) - *InnerSource practices are spreading to multiple teams and departments within an organization, however the understanding of what constitutes an InnerSource project varies. Defining a maturity model enables teams to do a self-assessment and discover new InnerSource patterns and practices, while also leading to a shared understanding of what InnerSource is.
4343
* [InnerSource License](patterns/2-structured/innersource-license.md) - *Two legal entities that belong to the same organization want to share software source code with each other but they are concerned about the implications in terms of legal liabilities or cross-company accounting. An InnerSource License provides a reusable legal framework for the sharing of source code within the organization. This opens up new collaboration options, and makes the rights and obligations of the involved legal entities explicit.*
4444
* [InnerSource Portal](patterns/2-structured/innersource-portal.md) - *Potential contributors cannot easily discover InnerSource projects that they are interested in. By creating an intranet website that indexes all available InnerSource project information you enable contributors to learn about projects that might interest them and InnerSource project owners to attract an outside audience.*
4545
* [Praise Participants](patterns/2-structured/praise-participants.md) - *Thank contributors effectively to engender further engagement from them and to encourage others to contribute*

‎patterns/2-structured/maturity-model.md‎

Lines changed: 30 additions & 24 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -4,11 +4,8 @@ Maturity Model
44

55
## Patlet
66

7-
Teams have started adopting InnerSource. The practice is spreading to multiple
8-
departments. However, the understanding of what constitutes an InnerSource
9-
project varies. The solution is to provide a maturity model to allow for teams
10-
to go through a self check and discover patterns and practices that they are not
11-
yet aware of.
7+
InnerSource practices are spreading to multiple teams and departments within an organization, however the understanding of what constitutes an InnerSource project varies.
8+
Defining a maturity model enables teams to do a self-assessment and discover new InnerSource patterns and practices, while also leading to a shared understanding of what InnerSource is.
129

1310
## Problem
1411

@@ -22,25 +19,37 @@ pain points that they are dealing with.
2219

2320
## Context
2421

25-
Several teams have started adopting InnerSource practices. The exact level of
26-
understanding of the practice diverges between teams. The exact problems teams
27-
run into diverge depending on the context and working environment of each team.
28-
As a result the definition of what are important best practices in an
29-
InnerSource project differs depending on each team.
22+
* Several teams have started adopting InnerSource practices.
23+
* The exact level of understanding of the practice diverges between teams.
24+
* The exact problems teams run into diverge depending on the context and working environment of each team.
25+
* As a result the definition of what are important best practices in an InnerSource project differs depending on each team.
3026

3127
## Forces
3228

33-
Teams sharing InnerSource learnings run into misunderstandings as they are not
34-
aware of their respective level of InnerSource adoption.
29+
* Teams are not aware of best practices that would help them solve issues that they run into in their daily doing.
30+
* Teams sharing InnerSource learnings with each other run into misunderstandings as they are not aware of their respective level of InnerSource adoption.
31+
* Teams believe that InnerSource is purely about making their source code available to the whole organization i.e. "It is all about migrating to a shared software development [forge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_%28software%29)" (like GitLab, GitHub, or Bitbucket).
3532

36-
Teams believe that "it's all about migrating to a shared software development [forge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_%28software%29)" (GitLab, GitHub, or Bitbucket being well known examples of such forges).
33+
## Solution
3734

38-
Teams are not aware of best practices that would help them solve issues that
39-
they run into in their daily doing.
35+
For this pattern it is particularly important that you adapt the maturity model below to the needs of your organization.
36+
The context of most organizations will differ too greatly, so there is no single maturity model that fits every org.
4037

41-
## Solution
38+
Steps to implement:
39+
40+
1. **maturity model definition**: Create a maturity model that fits the needs of your organization. Also consider the [Guiding Principles](../2-structured/document-your-guiding-principles.md) if you have defined those for your InnerSource program.
41+
2. **team self-assessment**: Then ask teams to self-assess against that maturity model. You may even do a couple of these sessions together with a few teams, to observe and learn if the maturity model is easy enough to understand.
42+
3. Define a maturity goal post assessment, derive tasks, add to your backlog, and schedule with your preferred planning system. Reassess after some time. e.g. yearly review
43+
44+
The process of going through these steps helps your organization in multiple ways:
4245

43-
Ask teams to self assess against the proposed maturity model.
46+
* Defining your own maturity model allows you, the organizers of the InnerSource program, to increase your own clarity. e.g. you will realize what matters to you, what training capabilities you have internally, what material is available externally, etc
47+
* You increase the trust in your initiative by allowing teams to go through the self-assessment at their own pace, and by opening up to feedback from them.
48+
* The teams going through the self-assessment will likely have discussions, possibly even disagreements about some of the points in the maturity model. These are fantastic conversation starters, and the discussions help you to create a shared understanding of InnerSource in your organization.
49+
50+
Below we have defined a **sample maturity model** around 4 categories: Transparency, Collaboration, Community, and Governance.
51+
52+
And again: Make sure you adapt this model to fit your organization before applying it!
4453

4554
### Transparency
4655

@@ -199,13 +208,9 @@ InnerSource comes with explicit roles. While in early stages some patterns may b
199208

200209
## Resulting Context
201210

202-
All teams are aware of available best practices.
203-
204-
Teams understand their level of InnerSource adoption.
205-
206-
Prior to adopting InnerSource as a working model, teams are aware of the
207-
practices that are expected of them - both in the short term and in the
208-
long term.
211+
* All teams are aware of available best practices.
212+
* Teams understand their level of InnerSource adoption.
213+
* Prior to adopting InnerSource as a working model, teams are aware of the practices that are expected of them - both in the short term and in the long term.
209214

210215
## Known Instances
211216

@@ -221,6 +226,7 @@ long term.
221226
* Isabel Drost-Fromm
222227
* Jorge
223228
* Nerea
229+
* Sebastian Spier
224230

225231
## Acknowledgments
226232

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)