Topic Areas

Course Description

Software vendors now have no choice; they must face a real paradigm shift without precedent in the prior decades of the software industry. Now free open source software (OSS) is available to customers, prospects, competitors, and your company. Should your firm offer some products or version as OSS? What have your engineers decided, and why? What are the options? What have other software vendors done, and with what new results and risks?

The March 15, 2003 issue of CIO Magazine states, CIOs who have implemented it (Linux) report significant reductions in total cost of ownership. Our conclusion? CIOs who don't come to terms with this revolution in 2003 will be paying too much for IT in 2004.

Should you or shouldn't you become invested in OSS? Is it 'new IT negligence' not to know OSS well? One thing seems certain: you should keep your eye on this phenomenon and stay abreast of the trends. What analysis can you offer senior management? How will you answer the inevitable fear, uncertainty and doubt of your customers, prospects, Board and legal counsel?

This workshop delivers practical, nuanced best practices, tools, and approaches. It will be delivered by a team, including Hank Jones, a 23-year software companies consultant, lawyer, executive, and trainer, and Don Shafer, a 35-year IT consultant and CTO, computer science author, and professor who has built many software products for both vendors and users. The workshop will include lessons and tools from the presenters prior OSS projects, teaching, and consulting.

Attendees will leave:

• prepared to lead their organization to consider and decide if and how to adopt OSS techniques and components or not, including blended approaches
• with flowcharts illustrating and explaining key new software development decision choices and points
• better prepared to plan, negotiate, and do due diligence with software and other technology and partners providers
• able to modify their internal software development training, hiring, and staffing needs
• with basic fluency in key OSS acronyms and jargon
• with a basic orientation regarding how OSS community culture, values and norms significantly vary from those of the traditional, proprietary software and information technology industries
• with recommendations for later study and supplemental skills, including books, white papers, Web sites, magazines, and mail lists

Course Outline:

Trends:

• Must software vendors modify their strategies, R&D processes, products, market messages, and customer support in the OSS era?
• What are these New Rules and Influences?

2. Data:

• What have other nimble software vendors said and done about their OSS adaptations?
• Do the announcements and actions differ? How? Why?

3. Do 2 Flavors?:

• Positive and Negative aspects of customers having a choice of OSS or entirely-proprietary products.

4. Risks and Rewards of a Blended-On-The-Inside Product (Both Proprietary andOSS Components).

5. Impacts of OSS-Impacted Products on Sales Channels.

• Is free really cheaper? How to budget for OSS and achieve low TCO and long-term TQM.

6. Surviving theOSS Evolution 101:

• Why and how to draft new OSS-impacted customer licensing agreements.

7. Surviving theOSS Evolution 102:

• Why and how administering prior and proprietary traditional customer licensing agreements will be a new challenge.

8. SurvivingOSS Litigation and Disputes:

• Lessons learned from the OSS mistakes of technical vendors to date (e.g., Progress and NuSphere v. MySQL; the XVID OSS Groups Reverse Engineering and Revelation of Sigma Designs Forbidden OSS Incorporation)

9. Best practices, common quandaries, and clear risks in OSS-inclusive product design, development, and management, including processes and tools.

10. Best practices, common quandaries, and clear risks in OSS-impacted customer support processes and tools.

11. Market Analysts Views: Impacts and Influence.

12. Corporate Impacts ofOSS Adoption on Software Vendors:

• Investment, intellectual property assets and competition, disclosures and partnering.

Expected Background/Preparation:

Only a basic background in software development and industry norms is expected. Hands-on software design, development, or documentation is not expected. The workshop will benefit managers and professionals in related fields, including product management, sales, alliances, procurement, finance, licensing, investing, tech. support, info. tech. consulting, and other areas.