The Open Source Maturity Model:

• Overview
• The Three Phases of the OSMM

Overview

The Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM), presented in Succeeding with Open Source, is designed to help organizations successfully implement open source software. The OSMM is a three-phase process for selecting, assessing, and implementing open source products. (Please see the accompanying figure to illustrate the process). The OSMM is designed to be a lightweight process that can evaluate an open source product’s maturity in two weeks or less.

The challenge that faces organizations considering a particular open source software product is that these products differ significantly from their commercial counterparts. The processes that organizations use to succeed with commercial software are inapplicable to the new world of open source. The key task in choosing a commercial package is identifying the vendor that delivers the most complete product: software, support, training, etc. The process is predicated on the vendor taking responsibility for the completeness of the product. Consequently, commercial software selection focuses on defining the right relationship with the chosen vendor: contract negotiations, price discounts, service level agreements (SLAs), maintenance and support commitments, and so forth.

This challenge is not present for open source products. Because most products are obtained at no cost, the battle of contracts and discounts is bypassed. The flip side of this is that the elements that accompany a commercial package must be located and assessed by the user organization. The open source world is an unbundled world in which far more responsibility for creating a complete product falls to the user. Therefore, the key challenge for open source users is locating and assessing the individual product elements that make up a complete product – one that meets all the needs of the organization.

Using the key software concept of maturity (i.e., how far along a product is in the software lifecycle, which dictates what type of use may be made of the product), the OSMM assesses the maturity level of all key product elements:

• Software

• Support

• Documentation

• Training

• Product integration

• Professional Services
  

The output of an OSMM assessment is a numeric score between 0 and 100 that may be compared against recommended levels for different purposes, which vary according to whether an organization is an early adopter or a pragmatic user of IT. The following table lists recommended minimum OSMM scores.

Recommended Minimum OSMM Scores

The Three Phases of the OSMM

Phase 1: Assessing Product Elements

In Phase 1 of the OSMM, an organization evaluates each product element with a four-step process: define requirements, locate resources, assess element maturity, and assign element score. Based upon the organization’s particular requirements, the available resources are assessed for their maturity and a score between 1 and 10 assigned. The output of Phase 1 is a set of scores for each of the key product elements.

Phase 2: Apply Product Element Weightings

Of course, not every product element is of equal importance. Software is fundamental; support is critical; documentation, though necessary, is less important than the previous two elements. In Phase 2 of the OSMM, weightings are applied to the individual element scores to reflect their overall importance for the product maturity. Default weightings are provided, but each organization is free to adjust the default weightings to reflect its particular needs. Here are the default weightings:

Default OSMM Element Weightings

Phase 3: Calculate Overall Product OSMM Score

An overall product maturity score is calculated in Phase 3 of the OSMM. This can be compared to the recommended minimum scores to determine if the product is suitable for an organization’s needs. The score can also be evaluated to determine if there are problems with the product that the organization needs to mitigate. The recommended minimum scores are, of course, just that: recommendations. The organization does not have to follow them rigidly; the recommended scores serve as guidelines to help it determine if an open source product will serve its needs.

Summary

The purpose of the OSMM is to enable organizations to meet the key challenge of open source: creating a mature product from the available unbundled product elements. Locating and assessing open source product elements according to the requirements of the organization is made much easier by the formalized process of the OSMM. It is a lightweight process designed to make the task of selecting and evaluating open source software manageable.