What Makes an Open Source Project Successful (And What Doesn’t)

Will your open source project be successful?

With open source currently dominating almost every field of technology, it’s wise for project developers to think about and set themselves up for success early on. Doing so will not only enable them to take full advantage of today’s open source domination, but also prevent them from wasting resources on a possibly fruitless endeavor.

While simply establishing software is a success in itself, open source success today means so much more than that. Success for an open source project means gaining a number of users and achieving several releases and continuous development. These things depend on certain factors which you can leverage early on in order to ensure success for your project.

Securing Success

So what are the factors that lead to open source project success?

• A significant need or pressing problem that the software is designed to answer. It’s not enough that you create great software. People need to care about it in order for it to gain usage and fulfill its purpose; and for people to care about it, it needs to answer their most pressing needs.
• A clear vision of what the project is and what it’s for, and a means to communicate that vision clearly to others.
• Skilled and highly motivated developers who care about the project. It’s important that project developers are not only skilled but also care about the project and use it for their own needs. When developers are software users themselves, they are more motivated to work on and improve the software.
• Good communication and relevant, reliable mediums of communication. Communication between developers and to and from project users is crucial to the success of any open source project.

Factors that Don’t Affect Open Source Project Success

The factors above are essentially what will spell success for your project. There are many others that seemingly affect your chances of success, but previous research has revealed many of these factors actually have little to no impact. Such factors include:

• The number of developers involved. The quality rather than the quantity of developers as well as their commitment to the project have more of an impact on project success.
• Large-scale adoption. While a large number of users may be indicative of success, a project can still be considered successful with a small user base as long as it continues to meet a significant need and is continually developed.
• The license used.
• Operating system the software was built for.
• A formal system of governance or lack thereof.
• The project’s source of funding or lack thereof. Based on research from the University of Massachusetts, the need for open source development is what pushes projects forward, not the funding. Of course funding is still necessary and in many cases funded projects appear more successful, but it is more likely that good projects attract funding and not the other way around.

So will your open source project be successful? As long as you secure the factors that truly determine success, you should be able to answer that question with a resounding yes.