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Expand Up @@ -4,35 +4,18 @@

## Patlet

TBD
When developers don't look for or can't find internally developed solutions, they may waste time and resources creating redundant software. To solve this, implement a robust internal search engine and processes that encourage the discovery and reuse of internal code.

## Also Known As
## Problem

* Not looking for stuff internally
* Don't bother looking
* Find it Inside
People don't bother looking for internally developed solutions - they might not find the repo at all or be aware of its existence.

## Context

* Software component(s) are available internally but users can't easily find these.
* This problem is more likely to occur in large, federated companies where different organizational units operate as silos.
* Historically, the company does not have a culture of sharing code across silos.

## Discussion on

* Comments may appear in the timeline but not with the file once it is edited (github)?
* https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns/pull/60
* If only X knew what X knew; the internal search engine is bad. No one can find anything because it is difficult to add things to the search index.
* We have similar challenges getting data sources pulled into the search engine. PayPal is building a project called Agora to do this and they are planning to open source it.
* Github Enterprise and npmjs have built-in searches on meta-data. Enterprise that opts into these tooling will get some of that functi
* Software component(s) are available internally but users can't easily find these.
* This problem is more likely to occur where there are silos in the company (e.g., larger companies; smaller companies may have fewer opportunities for reuse of internally developed software).
* The company traditionally has been bad at sharing across silos (people don't have the culture of sharing).

## Problem

People don't bother looking for internally developed solutions - they might not find the repo at all or be aware of its existence.

## Forces

* No good internal search engine (or not connected to git repositories; and difficult to make this change happen)
Expand All @@ -43,23 +26,26 @@
- might not be maintained
- might have poor reusability
- if someone put out a SW internally, the expectation is that they wouldn't have time to support it (vs. open source options)
* Difficulty in adding content to the search index makes it hard for people to find anything

## Solution

Make it easy to find the reusable code.

* Pull in Repo names, descriptions and README.md files into the search engine assuming that a search engine exists. Note: a one-stop-shop kind of search engine for all relevant communication and documentation is difficult to attain. Even when using Github's enterprise offering, people often deploy additional systems like wikis to host content orthogonal to what is in the code repositories, slack channels (or IRC), mailing lists (or even nntp servers), some place to store stuff written down in office formats, search over personal e-mail etc. Several of these systems come with search built-in, but integrating this content in one search box or even just deploying a federated search engine across all sources often doesn't come off-the-shelf.
* Consider using existing tools:
* GitHub Enterprise and npmjs have built-in searches on meta-data

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[vale] reported by reviewdog 🐶 [ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'npmjs'? Raw Output: {"message": "[ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'npmjs'?", "location": {"path": "patterns/2-structured/discover-your-innersource.md", "range": {"start": {"line": 37, "column": 27}}}, "severity": "ERROR"}
* PayPal's Agora project (planned to be open sourced) addresses similar challenges with data source integration

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GitHub Actions / vale

[vale] reported by reviewdog 🐶 [ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'Agora'? Raw Output: {"message": "[ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'Agora'?", "location": {"path": "patterns/2-structured/discover-your-innersource.md", "range": {"start": {"line": 38, "column": 14}}}, "severity": "ERROR"}
* Implement process change to first check for internal solutions for this problem.
* Tool with a central view (but people are more inclined to google externally than look internally)
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What does this mean?

* Concierge service (guide) to help product people find stuff. Might not scale but could be helpful in the beginning.
* Need some very visible lighthouse projects that start using inner source components and make positive statements about the inner source program.
* Establish a common, asynchronous communication channel (e.g., like slack or metamorph or yammer) across team boundaries. This might not scale beyond a certain organization size. It is possible people will start splitting this one channel into multiple channels by topic once traffic gets too high. Note: having one channel for many users of one tool might be considered an anti-pattern because they can't find it unless they already know about it.
* Need some very visible lighthouse projects that start using InnerSource components and make positive statements about the InnerSource program.
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This seems unrelated to the problem at hand.

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I believe the failure to discover your InnerSource is described here as caused by two potential issues:
a) lack of a well integrated search engine for internal projects
b) people failing to even think of searching internally: "People don't bother looking for internally developed solutions" to quote the problem setting.

I would assume the positive examples talking about the benefits of InnerSource components addresses b)

Me personally I wouldn't call that lighthouse projects though - most likely because my gut feeling has a very negative co-notation with lighthouse projects. Instead One might talk about early adopters and link to the Crossing the Chasm pattern.

* Establish a common, asynchronous communication platform (e.g., chat based) across team boundaries.
* This might not scale beyond a certain organization size.
* It is possible people will start splitting this one channel into multiple channels by topic once traffic gets too high.
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Suggested change
* It is possible people will start splitting this one channel into multiple channels by topic once traffic gets too high.
* When using common chat systems, start with one single chat channel for the InnerSource project, only split into multiple channels by topic once traffic gets too high. This way the channel feels alive. In addition the number of input channels to watch is kept at a minimum for the host team.

I think we need a bit of reasoning why one should start with only one communication channel. This might also link to our Communication Tooling pattern.

* Note: having one channel for many users of one tool might be considered an anti-pattern because they can't find it unless they already know about it.
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I don't understand that sentence. Maybe instead mention where to mention this communication channel so that downstream users can find it? (E.g. withing the README.md of the project, the CONTRIBUTING.md of the project, ...?)

* Encourage (and reward) owners of reusable code to use the same search engine to continually search for products that are candidates for use and adoption of the reusable code but not currently doing so.
* Consider creating a marketplace for marketing InnerSource programs (management can use this mechanism to know which InnerSource projects to fund, but seeing how the marketplace reacts).

## Known Instances

TBD
* Consider creating a marketplace for marketing InnerSource programs (management can use this mechanism to know which InnerSource projects to fund, but seeing how the marketplace reacts). - see [Gig Marketplace](../2-structured/gig-marketplace.md)

## Resulting Context

Expand All @@ -68,11 +54,16 @@
* Developers are now looking internally for software components
* Search results are combined (internal and external)
* Process changes, establishing a common communications channel, and encouraging and rewarding owners of reusable code to use the same search engine can contribute to changing the corporate culture. Transformation begins from the grassroots but requires strategic involvement of thought leaders.
* See [Improved Findability](improve-findability.md) (aka Poor Naming Conventions or Badly Named Piles) as a related pattern.
* See [Improved Findability](../1-initial/improve-findability.md) (aka Poor Naming Conventions or Badly Named Piles) as a related pattern.

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[vale] reported by reviewdog 🐶 [ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'Findability'? Raw Output: {"message": "[ISC.Spelling] Did you really mean 'Findability'?", "location": {"path": "patterns/2-structured/discover-your-innersource.md", "range": {"start": {"line": 57, "column": 17}}}, "severity": "ERROR"}
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@spier do we generally omit links to initial patterns?

I see one link to an initial pattern here.

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Yes, we would only link to same maturity or higher.

ie omit this link.

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Hmm - do we have a way to track the links that we remove from patterns as they move up so that those links can be added back as soon as the patterns one level further below move up as well?

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We can comment the link to keep the reference but not publish it.

Do we like this option?

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That sounds like a nice solution. I'm just trying to avoid losing these cross references.

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@jeffabailey feel free to try that approach with the commenting.
I have not used comments in markdown in this project, so we will have to try out if it works properly in gitbook as well (I suspect it will work though).


## Known Instances

* Nike Inc.
* WellSky

## Status

* Initial (brainstormed solution)
* Structured

## Authors

Expand All @@ -83,4 +74,12 @@

## Acknowledgements

* Contributions from Russ Rutledge, Ofer Hermoni and Robert Hanmer
* Russ Rutledge
* Ofer Hermoni
* Robert Hanmer

## Alias

* Not looking for stuff internally
* Don't bother looking
* Find it Inside