Sustainability

[avvertix]

Maybe the term "sustainability" is too broad, but to me it should be touched as at least a reflection point. I think two points should be considered:

• The ToR ask to use an existing OS tool: how use will impact the sustainability of the OS tool/library? For example the project is very successful, but run by two maintainers. What (or if) should the guideline suggest in this case. I'm concerned about the involvement of the maintainers and their overload
• The ToR ask to release the results as an OS project. Should our guidelines include topics like maintenance of the repositories and how to deal with contributions/requests?

and in comparison to not open source:
if the code is owned by a startup, can we call that sustainable (how high is the risk that it won't survive the next x years)? And is this really more likely compared to an established company?

[fretchen]

I wonder if "maturity" might be a fitting term for the problem of small dev teams and fast evolving startups. But here again I think that the "maturity" of the software stack really depends on the context of the project:

• For small pilots I can use most likely use bleeding edge technologies.
• For large scale government projects, it is most likely that I have to very carefully evaluate the risks that come with "too small" projects ?

But then again how do you evaluate those risks ? What are the questions that you ask ?

• What happens if the team/company behind the technology is not available throughout the project ?
• What is the cost of a technology change ?