We are working with a client at the moment whose developer has walked out on a partially completed contract; this is an all to familiar story in our world but we note that it is even more prevalent when Open Source [OS] developers try to integrate or extend applications and projects become too hard and too costly.
The Standish Group聽 reports that around 30% of IT projects will be canceled. Around 52% of projects will cost 189% of their original estimates.聽 Only 16% are completed on-time and on-budget. In larger companies, the news is even worse: only 9% of their projects come in on-time and on-budget.
Before I go to deep it is important to know that within JWGecko we use many OS products; chiefly the MySQL database which we believe to be faster than the Microsoft solution – it is brilliant! We also use non mission critical browsers, browser tools, link checkers and the like and we love them all. We would use Firefox over Internet Explorer and Safari 8 days a week – but only MySQL is mission critical for our business.
Our main product is our website management tool called CherryCMS. All our modules and products use its API [development structure in this context]. This means that virtually everything we build for ourselves and our products is based on CherryCMS. Of course we work with other platforms regularly. We do this for two reasons; to make sure they aren’t doing anything we should be and because we don’t mandate clients use all our products. When we build functions within application these are mostly recycled from other products and are almost always tested and documented before you even commission your new development – the risk profile is as low as possible.
Accountability – whose Butt can I kick?
It is early on Saturday morning [it really is], your website or eLearning system doesn’t work, what do you do about it?
ALL applications have issues, most commercial vendors have systems in place to alert them to a problem so they can fix it before you know about it … but even if they don’t … you the client can call harass or sue them if they screw up – can you do that with Open Source?
Where does your application start and the open source product finish? How could a non-technical person even know? At some point in the complaint process when you have an OS solution the developer is bound to say ” Yes, there is a problem with {insert open source product name here} and we are waiting for the community to develop a ‘hot fix'”.
Client: “how long will that take?”
Developer: “Obviously this is outside our control ….”
Client: Kick your own Butt here 馃檪
Open Source – the 84% solution
You might think an 84% solution is not good enough for your business however in most cases it is only ‘almost’ all you need. The problem is with an out-of-the-box Joomla, WordPress or Drupal type solution is that they are so good and cheap and quick for a basic solution, the client mistakenly believes their developer actually knows what they are doing or that the product is going to be easy to extend – more often than not the opposite is true.
Often a small template design change for an OS product might takes hours of developer time when in a commercial product you could do it yourself – we have seen this many times.
Integration with another system really is ‘how long is a piece of string’ AND most importantly with a custom solution, will the contractor be around to support the integration and will it work with future versions of the software?
We are currently evaluating an OS product called Railo, an application server. It was a commercial product that could not compete with the muscle of Adobe and so became free. They make a good living out of consulting and add-ons. It does create the obvious question though, of the total cost of software ownership, how much is the software itself? The answer is … in the main … NOT A LOT.
We like Moodle at JWGecko but we definitely put Moodle in the expensive consultant bucket – have you noticed how many high priced consultants and integrators there are out there for Moodle?
I am sorry to sound so cynical but we have been here before – many times.
There are issues on the commercial side of the fence too with vendors who walk away or rip you off or insist on you using them and only them … but that is a post for another rainy Saturday morning in Sydney.
