Episode 120: Practitioner Guides: #5 Demonstrating Organizational Value

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Oct 2, 2025

Dawn Foster, a seasoned expert in open source and Director of Data Science for the KAAS Project, teams up with Bob Killen, a Senior Technical Program Manager at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. They delve into the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides designed to help organizations navigate open source data and communicate its value. The duo discusses strategies for framing contributions that resonate with leadership, leveraging a formula to prioritize project investments, and using effective language to illustrate ROI and secure support for critical projects.

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INSIGHT

Guides Tame The Metrics Tsunami

CHAOSS created Practitioner Guides to help practitioners navigate the "tsunami of data" from open source metrics.
The new guide focuses on demonstrating organizational value rather than just getting started.

ANECDOTE

Talks Turned Into A Practical Guide

Bob's KubeCon and Linux Foundation talks inspired the guide's content.
Dawn adapted much of Bob's presentation material into the detailed Practitioner Guide.

INSIGHT

ROI Ignorance Makes OSS Vulnerable

Open source is often an early target for budget cuts because leadership doesn't see clear ROI.
The guide distills how to tell stories that make open source value obvious to decision-makers.

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CHAOSScast – Episode 120

In this episode of CHAOSScast, Harmony Elendu hosts a discussion with Dawn Foster and Bob Killen to discuss their extensive experience in open source and detail the motivations behind the creation of the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides. These guides aim to help practitioners navigate the overwhelming amount of data related to open source projects and understand how to improve project health and sustainability. The discussion covers strategies for communicating the business value of open source efforts to leadership, framing contributions in a way that resonates with organizational priorities, and prioritizing investments in critical projects. Press download now!

[00:00:31] Dawn and Bob introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:24] Dawn explains why CHAOSS created Practitioner Guides: to help navigate the “tsunami of data” from open source metrics. The new guide is different and is focused on demonstrating organizational value.

[00:04:36] Harmony asks about the inspiration for the guide. Dawn credits Bob and how the guide was built largely from his talks at KubeCon and the Linux Foundation Member Summit.

[00:05:22] Bob talks about macroeconomic pressures where open source is often first cut. The guide helps orgs tell compelling stories to leadership about open source ROI.

[00:07:14] Bob shares a case study: maintainers reframed contributions in leadership’s language- revenue impact, bug fix turnaround, and resource efficiency and how this secured leadership support. Dawn adds that every organization values different things and provides an example.

[00:11:36] Bob introduces the formula: Priority = Criticality x Health.

[00:13:36] Dawn emphasizes formula helps orgs prioritize strategically critical but under-resourced projects (example: Kubernetes cluster API at VMware). Bob notes criticality differs by company and even department.

[00:16:51] Harmony ask how to report open source value to leadership. Bob explains the importance of framing in leadership’s language, not just raw contribution counts. Dawn warns against poor framing and explains about being careful about how you talk to leadership about your open source efforts.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:20:47] Dawn’s pick is discovery how easy it was to build a static site with GitHub Pages and Jekyll.
[00:21:38] Bob’s pick is dosu.dev.
[00:22:18] Harmony’s pick is exploring AI models for fraud detection and system tracking.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Bob Killen

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Dawn Foster X

Bob Killen Website

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides (YouTube)

CHAOSS Data Science Working Group: New Guides, Research, and More (Blog Post by Dawn Foster

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership

GitHub Pages documentation

Jekyll

Dosu

Special Guest: Bob Killen.

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