There are hundreds of thousands of open source projects out there – many are innovative ideas, poised to make a positive impact on the world. There is a much smaller number that move from an idea with one or two maintainers to broad adoption with an active community and investments from other organizations. How does this happen? What moves the needle? Helping projects grow and mature is exactly the mission of the Linux Foundation. We are a place where open source innovators thrive.
In this article, I want to help you look at each of the project life cycle stages, determine where your project is, and, at a high-level, show how you can move your project successfully through each stage.
Open Source projects succeed when the right parties are involved throughout every stage of a project’s life cycle. Project teams work together from the early proposal and planning stages to the projects’ peak maturity stages and eventual wind-down.
This article is targeted to help Open Source Communities and Program Managers identify the life cycle stages of a project and promote the participation of the right committees at the right time to drive the project smoothly and transition it as it develops.
It also analyzes an example of what a project’s participation and challenges look like for an early-stage project compared to a mature project to bring insight into what to expect at those stages.
Depending on your Open Source project, these stages might vary in name, but most projects center on the same principles and focus on the following stages:
Committee Participation
Let’s discuss how a project in its early Incubation stage compares to a project in a Mature set and how having the appropriate committee’s attention can facilitate the work.
It is essential to have a clear definition of where your project stands and a clear roadmap to where it is heading so the key teams can perform their best during the project’s life cycle.
How does LFX play a part in the project’s life cycle?
LFX was developed by the Linux Foundation to streamline and support Open Source projects at any stage of a project’s life cycle. For example:
With the right participation from individuals and committees, the project will have the right resources to grow and develop through each life cycle stage. I hope this article comes in handy for your open source community, and you find it easier to accurately identify your project’s life cycle stage – and have the right LFX tools to boost your project performance. All LFX tools play an essential part in the open source project’s development; this article hopefully helps your team choose where to start your LFX journey.
Check out the LFX tools and for additional information about project life cycles, please feel free to contact me, Jessica Gonzalez, at jwagantall@linuxfoundation.org and join your colleagues in the open source community at the LFX Community Forum.
The author, Jessica Gonzalez, is Release Engineer & LFX Community Architect at the Linux Foundation.