The Cathedral and the Bazaar

A very interesting document is "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". Written by Eric Raymond in 1997, is a document aimed at programmers for software development. However, if viewed from the standpoint of management, is the biggest news for the management of projects in recent years.

The document tells the story of "a successful open-source project, fetchmail, that was run as a deliberate test of the surprising theories about software engineering"; but, if you do reading with a free spirit - especially from the third party - will probably be surprised by the new perspectives that may arise from this model.

The cathedral and bazaar images are quite interesting. A cathedral is usually constructed from an initial project and tasks are clearly divided in the hierarchy. A bazaar is something that always changes, but without losing its characteristic appearance. The clouds and the waves are like this: always different and always similar.

Raymond contrasts two models: the Cathedral is the classic model of conducting projects. From a centrally planned project, the participants are divided into groups by subject, or teams or cells, each cell has its chief or head of the responsible and distribute tasks among the participants in the planning function. These leaders report to a boss above. Nothing is put to the public before been tested and approved. The tests are called "drivers" and corrections are made in small closed groups.

In the Bazaar, the initial planning is much more an individual or a small group desire to accomplish something, or need for satisfaction. At this initial cell, other participants will be joining - because they have similar needs or desires. The heads appear on merit - who's more competent or worker at any given time, takes the lead - and the hierarchy is spontaneous and mobile. The project is being made public as soon as possible so that users are participating in the project, at least with their criticisms.

Of course a model of a bazaar can only work in an environment where the level of communication between the participants is cheap and fast. What environment today is better than internet? It was expected that from the internet this new model of project management arises.

Although the classical model of management has many years ahead, it's important that managers know that this isn't more the only way to achieve good results at the end of a period of activity.

I like administration a lot