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Retreat Theme / Discussion Topic
Every RIT/SC Retreat has a theme or topic around which discussions focus. This year's topic is "Precarious Values in Distributed, Collaborative Open-Source Software Development"
For background on the term, see, e.g., “Organizational Adaptation and Precarious Values: A Case Study”, Burton R. Clark. American Sociological Review, Vol. 21, No. 3. (Jun., 1956), pp. 327-336.
“Precarious values” are values that would be affirmed in principle by most members of an organized effort, but that in practice are threatened, marginalized, or deprecated by a lack of substantive commitment. Some values commonly described as precarious in traditional and directed open-source software development projects include:
These values contrast with "core values," such as feature development and coder productivity, which are normally reliably rewarded within the projects.
One telltale sign of a precarious value in a development project is that it is not integrated pervasively in the software-development life-cycle but instead either considered early and then ignored thereafter, or more commonly, treated as something to be dealt with only after code has been written. One often hears precarious values described as constantly “clinging to the tail of the elephant.” Another telltale is that precarious values are often delegated to specialists of one sort or another, rather than being tasked as the responsibility of every participant.
We would like each project to come prepared to discuss the precarious value(s) that it sees as most crucial to its continued success, and to discuss together technical and social innovations that might help to integrate those critical values more deeply and pervasively into the development life-cycle.
- Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1224%28195606%2921%3A3%3C327%3AOAAPVA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
“Precarious values” are values that would be affirmed in principle by most members of an organized effort, but that in practice are threatened, marginalized, or deprecated by a lack of substantive commitment. Some values commonly described as precarious in traditional and directed open-source software development projects include:
- accessibility
- architectural planning
- desktop integration/”fit-and-polish”
- user and developer documentation
- QA and testing
- security
- usability
These values contrast with "core values," such as feature development and coder productivity, which are normally reliably rewarded within the projects.
One telltale sign of a precarious value in a development project is that it is not integrated pervasively in the software-development life-cycle but instead either considered early and then ignored thereafter, or more commonly, treated as something to be dealt with only after code has been written. One often hears precarious values described as constantly “clinging to the tail of the elephant.” Another telltale is that precarious values are often delegated to specialists of one sort or another, rather than being tasked as the responsibility of every participant.
We would like each project to come prepared to discuss the precarious value(s) that it sees as most crucial to its continued success, and to discuss together technical and social innovations that might help to integrate those critical values more deeply and pervasively into the development life-cycle.
- Are there organizational structures or processes (organizational design patterns) for distributed, collaborative software development projects that might improve the integration of strategically crucial precarious values?
- Are there anti-patterns that should be avoided?
- Are there OSS development methodologies that are particularly encouraging or disruptive of attention to precarious values?
- What role can technology play in supporting precarious values inside distributed, collaborative OSS projects?
- What role does leadership play?�
