Production of Distributed Open Source Software

Physical and organizational decentralization is promoted not only by open source community development models, but also by open licensing models and the culture of sharing and contribution that is an important part of many open source projects. In this micro-course, students will participate in planning the production of distributed open source software through project and program management methodologies and the design of workflows that encourage mass collaboration. These methodologies enable an information technology unit to support a decentralized workflow for the design, development, and distribution of software. Managing a sustainable community responsible for generating critical organizational information and technology assets can be a complex and consequential undertaking. 

By the end of this micro-course, students will be able to:

1. Determine and apply applicable project management methodologies that lend themselves to decentralized development and Open Source values.
   
   
2. Identify workflows and processes that encourage collaboration and decentralized decision making. 
   
   
3. Develop milestone and deadline planning across multiple independent teams. 
   
   
4. Determine viability of infrastructure used to support workflows designed to ensure product reliability and project integrity.
   
   
5. Develop an implementation plan and make recommendations for production workflow in response to an Open Source Software problem of practice.  

Visit the Open Source Technology Management program webpage to learn about other program offerings.