Re: Politics in software development projects (was: Unattainable Goals that are Silll Worse Pursuing)

On Tuesday 22 April 2008, Omer Zak wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 04:39 +0300, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > [ Note: This essay has a more universal message than computers, but it
> > also applies to it, as I shall demonstrate. I'd like to post it on my
> > blog, but I'm going to use you guys as my guinea pigs. Comments are
> > welcome. ]
> >
> > One thought that occured to me lately was the fact that there are some
> > goals in
> > life that can never be fully attained, but are nevertheless worth
> > pursuing and getting nearer and nearer to them. Like an asymptotic
> > function in mathematics if you may.
>
> Other examples:
> 1. Getting as wealthy as possible.

True to some extent, but while I would love to be rich, I don't see myself 
needing to be very rich. It is known that Alexander Dumas who wrote many 
popular historical fiction, made and lost several fortunes during his 
lifetime and died pennyless. On the other hand, Jules Verne wrote a great 
deal of bestsellers, and earned a fortune, but nevertheless still lived 
relatively modestly and didn't spend his money on extravagant things. As far 
as I know, he died very rich and it's highly possible his descendants are 
still very well-off.

> 2. Overcoming a never-ending series of challenges (scientific
> discoveries, extreme sports, Guiness-level world records, etc.) one by
> one.

That's right. There was a Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode about a 
terraformer (someone who designs entire landscapes) who kept looking for 
bigger and bigger challenges:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Second_Sight

>
> > One example that I'm especially sensitive about is politics in a software
> > project (possibly an open-source one ). Obviously, there can never be
> > zero politics, but the project leaders and members should always try to
> > reduce its amount, because not keeping it at bay is a recipe for
> > disaster. I constantly hear about important features that are not
> > implemented or even bugs that are left unfixed in open-source projects
> > due to political reasons.
>
> My take about politics in FOSS projects (or in other spheres of human
> acitvity) is to agree with whomever said (I don't remember the source)
> that in any project involving multiple stakeholders, there are always
> different interests, which sometimes contradict each other.  For the
> project to proceed, some process is needed to allocate limited resources
> to satisfy the various interests.  This process is the political
> process.

Hmmm.... obviously you're right that some process needs to take place, which 
may involve any of the following:

1. Monarchy/Dictatorship - appointing someone as the "head honcho" who has the 
ultimate decision.

2. Convincing - trying to convince someone that something may be better off 
your way.

3. Prioritising.

4. Compromising.

5. Democracy/etc. - in my opinion it is sub-optimal.

6. "Show me the code!" - if you want it done, just write a patch that does it.

7. Mutiny/Fork/Split-off.

I'm not sure I can call any of these things "politics", but we obviously need 
a word for them. Probably I can say that a project needs to reduce the bad 
politics, which is anti "do and let do" and the rest of the Hacker ideology. 

Of course we can argue whether it is "good procedures" vs. "politics" or "good 
politics" vs. "bad politics" all day long, and not reach a conclusion. 
>
> The difference between well-managed projects and projects mired in dirty
> politics is in the management of the inevitable politics.
> It would be interesting to discuss how to make politics our servant
> rather than our master.

That would be nice, yes. 

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
What does "Zionism" mean? - http://xrl.us/bjn8u

The bad thing about hardware is that it sometimes work and sometimes doesn't.
The good thing about software is that it's consistent: it always does not
work, and it always does not work in exactly the same way.

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