OSS death in The Matrix

84 percent of employees are “matrixed” to some extent, meaning they serve on multiple teams
Gallup Report: “State of the American Workplace.”

Like me, you’ve probably worked on some highly functional OSS teams as well as some dysfunctional ones. Perhaps you’ve even worked with teams that have had elements of both.

Today I reflect on what have been the ingredients of the highly functional teams I’ve been lucky to work with.

They’ve had smart, dedicated people, but so have the dysfunctional teams so that’s not it. The dysfunctional teams have had conflict, but so have the functional teams.

Interestingly, the highest achieving teams I’ve worked on have tended to be small and located far away from home. They haven’t had a single powerful leader but have had a core of tripods with functional groupings surrounding the core. They haven’t always had great project managers leading the project but that certainly doesn’t mean a lack of leadership.

Large OSS projects tend to evolve as they go, so having a clear view of the end state hasn’t been the differentiator. I’ve always believed that the customer / client gets back what they put in but some of the highest-achieving teams have delivered even when there has been something of an us against them dynamic (but still significant interaction with the client).

My take on all of this is:

  • Having a core of 3-5 multi-functional experts, each guiding smaller teams, spreads the dependence compared with having a single guru
  • Being offshore has tended to force a greater level of team interaction and deeper understanding between team members, especially outside work hours, even where that hasn’t necessarily translated to close friendships
  • Being part of a small team that is under-resourced means everyone has had to go outside the comfort zone of their job title to get priority tasks done. Whilst the single common objective (ie to deliver an OSS) is clear, there has been flexibility in how the objective is achieved
  • Having a single objective (ie not matrixed across multiple teams and projects) has allowed a focus amidst the chaos and a sense of accountability to a single team

l tend to believe that the last item on the list could be one of the biggest, most underestimated factors. Most big OSS projects I’ve worked on in the last few years have been heavily matrixed. They also haven’t had the most highly functional teams interestingly.

If you’re envisioning a moonshot OSS project, I’d recommend building a small expert core and eliminate any sense of the matrix from around them.

In your experience, what have been the ingredients of the most successful teams you’ve engaged with? Are my ingredients consistent or contrary to yours?

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