LATEST RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT MORE THAN HALF OF ORGANISATIONS HAVE MADE THE MOVE TO OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (OSS). ALTHOUGH MANY ORGANISATIONS SEE THE BENEFIT OF SUCH A MOVE, THERE ARE 5 IMPORTANT FACTORS TO CONSIDER.
“Open source software (OSS), like most things, has its advantages and disadvantages. These advantages include the reduction in cost and the increased speed in developing desired functionality,” explained Kareem Tawansi, CEO of software development provider, Solentive Software.
“What organisations should keep in mind though, is that future functionality of a piece of software is dependent on building the foundation with the correct long-term aims in mind. Future functionality may be difficult to build if the foundation was built for a slightly different purpose.
“If a piece of functionality built into the OSS fails, it can sometimes be a challenge in getting developers to take responsibility of code they did not write.
“Finally, like packaged software, open source applications may automate systems that are different to an organisation’s preferred systems. This means that a company will need to change its systems to match those implemented in the OSS application, which is a similar scenario to packaged software but not an issue with fully custom-built software,” concluded Kareem.
The following 5 factors must be considered when deciding whether or not to use open source software:
Cost reduction
Speed of implementation
May not have a foundation to support future desired functionality
Code ownership may be a problem
May need to change systems to match the OSS application