To Nha Notes | Sept. 4, 2023, 10:16 a.m.
Mindshare
Avoid adopting OSS projects that don’t have traction and popularity. Look at the number of GitHub stars, forks, and commit volume and recency. Another thing to pay attention to is community activity on related chat groups and forums. Does the project have a strong sense of community? A strong community creates a virtuous cycle of strong adoption. It also means that you’ll have an easier time getting technical assistance and finding talent qualified to work with the framework.
Maturity
How long has the project been around, how active is it today, and how usable are people finding it in production? A project’s maturity indicates that people find it useful and are willing to incorporate it into their production workflows.
Troubleshooting
How will you have to handle problems if they arise? Are you on your own to troubleshoot issues, or can the community help you solve your problem?
Project management
Look at Git issues and the way they’re addressed. Are they addressed quickly? If so, what’s the process to submit an issue and get it resolved?
Team
Is a company sponsoring the OSS project? Who are the core contributors?
Developer relations and community management
What is the project doing to encourage uptake and adoption? Is there a vibrant chat community (e.g., in Slack) that provides encouragement and support?
Contributing
Does the project encourage and accept pull requests? What are the process and timelines for pull requests to be accepted and included in main codebase?
Roadmap
Is there a project roadmap? If so, is it clear and transparent?
Self-hosting and maintenance
Do you have the resources to host and maintain the OSS solution? If so, what’s the TCO and TOCO versus buying a managed service from the OSS vendor?
Giving back to the community
If you like the project and are actively using it, consider investing in it. You can contribute to the codebase, help fix issues, and give advice in the community forums and chats. If the project allows donations, consider making one. Many OSS projects are essentially community-service projects, and the maintainers often have full-time jobs in addition to helping with the OSS project. Sadly, it’s often a labor of love that doesn’t afford the maintainer a living wage. If you can afford to donate, please do so.