“Open source requires a fundamentally different operating model in order for IT organizations to succeed. Succeeding with Open Source is the first how-to book about selecting open source software based on a product’s characteristics such as quality, support, and longevity. Open source software is here to stay. Golden provides an essential tool for evaluating its usefulness/readiness for the corporation.”

—Martin Fink, Vice-President—Linux, Hewlett-Packard, and author of The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source “Open source software is transforming the way companies acquire and manage software at every level, from operating systems to applications. Today, IT managers who don’t evaluate open source alternatives to proprietary software are doing their companies a profound disservice. If you are involved in any aspect of software acquisition and you aren’t intimately familiar with how open source systems are created, documented, and supported, you need this book. It provides you with a new framework for assessing the maturity of open source solutions, walks you through every step of the evaluation process, and provides vital insights into the risks and benefits of making the open source decision.”

—David A. Taylor, Ph.D., author of Object Technology: A Manager’s Guide and Supply Chains: A Manager’s Guide “Novell, its customers, and its partners have been waiting for something like this: a quantitative and qualitative way to assess the strength of open source projects we hope to support or build into our products. Golden provides a clear, concise methodology for determining whether an open source project is enterprise-ready and what it would take to make it so.”

—Chris Stone, Vice Chairman, Novell “Open source software addresses many of the needs of IT organizations. While more and more organizations are using open source software, few understand how to evaluate it in the absence of a parent organization. Golden provides an effective mechanism to quickly evaluate open source software based on standard software measures—such as quality, support, and documentation—and to share those evaluations with other organizations. Using Golden’s model, IT organizations can efficiently compare proprietary solutions to open source software solutions.”

—Stormy Peters, Open Source Program Office, Hewlett-Packard Company “This book contains some of the most valuable, practical advice I have seen on how to transform the use of open source software from an accidental process into a powerful strategy for gaining an edge on the competition. By providing measurable engineering and process criteria for selecting open source products and processes, it brings open source software and methods squarely within the fold of traditional software engineering and business practices. I believe this book will be looked back on as an important transition point for recognizing how open source software can be used to promote business innovation and control costs.”

—Terry Bollinger, IT Analyst, The MITRE Corporation, author of “Use of Free and Open Source Software in the U.S. Department of Defense,” and former editor of IEEE Software magazine “An outstanding look at how open source software can provide both a competitive edge and significant cost savings for any company. Required reading for any technical professional or manager.”

—Kevin Bedell, Editor in Chief, LinuxWorld Magazine “This book describes a thorough and pragmatic process to determine if/when an organization should employ open source software in mission-critical systems. Golden’s Open Source Maturity Model is a vital tool for planning open source successes.”

—Craig Murphy, Chief Technology Officer, Sabre Much like Odysseus—who had to negotiate perils between Scylla and Charybdis—IT managers face daunting challenges. On one side, there is relentless pressure to cut costs. On the other lies an unending demand for innovative solutions. However, unlike Odysseus, IT managers must not simply avoid either fate: Instead, they must fulfill both quests. To meet these seemingly disparate goals, IT organizations are increasingly investigating the use of open source software for its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. However, myths about open source software persist—for example, that it runs only on Linux or that it is not stable enough for demanding production environments. Dispelling those myths, leading companies such as Amazon.com and Google rely on open source software, and many more companies will make the switch in the years ahead. Succeeding with Open Source is the first book written specifically for IT managers who need to evaluate, select, and use open source software. The author begins with the fundamentals of open source solutions and how they differ greatly from commercial software. He then introduces the Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM), an invaluable resource for assessing open source products for their production readiness. Highlights include:

• Assessing open source business models

• Managing risk, including licensing issues

• Evaluating and selecting open source software

• Locating and assessing technical support, training, and documentation resources

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 13 Ratings

Great book for anyone who wants to understand Open Source, e - 2004-12-08
Reviewer Rating:
Have you been wondering how to extend the use of open source software in your organization, but would like to know how to find the right software and do pro-quality evaluations of alternatives effectively? This excellent book by Bernard Golden will show you what's different about open source in detail, how you might make those differences work in your organization, and how to use a simple, effective model that summarizes the necessary elements to compare different apps that might fit into your environment. Using Golden's methods will educate your choices, reduce your risks, and help you to succeed with open source.

This is a "How-To" book for IT managers, but it's also very suitable for beginners. The concepts don't require technical knowledge, and the explanations are clear and concise.

Part I is an overview of everything you wanted to know about open source. It dispells myths, and helps you to understand why open source works at all. Best of all, each chapter has an executive summary, and most paragraphs have a margin note that summarizes the paragraph's concept. This really makes the book easy to read or review. You can skim down the page reading the concept notes until you come to the areas where you want more in-depth knowledge. The overview is excellent.

Part II (which also includes the great paragraph notes) introduces Golden's Open Source Maturity Model, the framework for applying what you learned, or knew, from Part I, and more that you will learn later in Part II. The model is a template that grids the elements for software assessment and weighting factors. When you do the math you get the product maturity score, maturity being how full-featured and ready for production use the product is. Of course, your weighting factors will affect the score to make it useful in light of your organization. Formally scoring a number of products will pinpoint the products you should and should not be considering. This part is pretty simple.

The devil, of course, is in the details. Golden discusses different types of organizations, how they should set up their reviews, weightings and interpret scores. Then he applies this process to a real-world example using JBOSS, a significant open source product. Each element is fully explored in its own chapter, and this is where the rubber meets the road. Golden compares how commercial products provide the elements, then he discusses how open source provides the elements, many times by using different mechanisms. He gives great guidance on how to find and use these resources when they differ from the single-point solution of commercial software. If differences between open source and commercial software implementation weren't clear to you before, they will be after these chapters, and you'll begin to know how to get the most out of them, too. Open source may not be the right answer for your environment, but now you'll know exactly why, and what has to change before it is.

This is a well-written and thorough book, good for initiates and decision makers, made easy to use by the paragraph notes. If open source is on your radar, I highly recommend it.

Great Book! Exactly what we needed! - 2005-01-04
Reviewer Rating:
Any IT Manager with their eye on the radar knows that open source software is rapidly maturing into a viable alternative to expensive commercial software packages. However, there are still some barriers to entry into the OSS world, especially for IT Managers within large, traditional, non-IT companies.

The OSMM evaluation method described in this book is a perfect fit for an IT Manager trying to find a way to justify their use of open source software inside the software stack of one of those traditional, non-IT companies.

The real-world examples provided by Bernard throughout the book are very interesting and can be used as additional "weight" to your arguments if you are trying to convince your boss that your use of OSS is no longer the pioneering adventure that it once was.

This book not only provides OSMM evaluation method, but also a well-written overview of the current status of OSS in the first three chapters.

I was not able to find blank worksheet templates on www.navicasoft.com although the book indicates that these are located somewhere on the website. I also could not find a way to upload an assessment to share with the OS community. This is a something that should be considered as it would really be a tactical advantage for IT Manager's efforts if there was a section of Navica's website dedicated to sharing OSMM assessments of the different OS packages. I can imagine that a user community would quickly spring up in response to such an portal.

Truly an excellent book!

A real goldmine - 2005-07-20
Reviewer Rating:
This book is perhaps the best resource I've run across on the subject of evaluating open source.

In this book, Golden explains the methodology of applying his Open Source Maturity Model (OSMM). OSMM is a framework for evaluating the maturity of an open source project and its usefulness, specific to an organizations software requirements. The book provides excellent insight into the organization and culture of open source projects and provides a wealth of recommendations for investigating and evaluation open source software.

I was really blown away by the accessibility and accuracy of Golden's writing. Having been involved in open source for about 6 years in one context or another, I found his analysis of open source software to be spot-on. If you are looking for a simple, guided, and clear methodology for evaluating the usefulness and maturity of a specific open source project, you should read this book. It's a goldmine.

Solid, thoughtful, well-done book for those who use open source - 2007-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
I found this book to be excellent. It clearly defines areas to be researched, how to do that research, where to find the resources and how to make sure the package will meet the needs of the users. It is well written, easily understood by all levels of users and extremely, extremely helpful. If only users of open source software went through these steps, open source would be far more successful than it already is.

Excellent resource for developers, users, and investors - 2005-04-13
Reviewer Rating:
Bernard Golden's book offers one of the most comprehensive analytical tools for evaluating open source software projects, his Open Source Maturity Model (which is also featured on his website, www.navicasoft.com.) The book starts with a general overview of open source software, open source business models, and key legal issues, and then discusses the OSMM in depth. It also offers a very detailed and fair evaluation of a major open source project, JBoss.

Whether you are a developer creating an open source project, a user evaluating an open source project, or an investor doing due diligence, this book is a very valuable resource.

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