Frankly, I wouldn’t be bother with the feud going on in the arena. As a professional manager, I have the best interest of my employer in mind. I used products from both camps so long it achieves the business objectives. Be it Open Source or Proprietary, it doesn’t matter at all (well, reality sucks, if $$$ is concerned). The most important thing that matters to me by the end of the day is, whether it delivers the benefits that I am expecting. In some instances, interoperability is a key consideration when deciding which solution to be deployed. Almost in many cases or projects that I gone through, you simply cannot avoid a heterogeneous set up or now commonly known by the buzz word of ‘Hybrid’.

At the top (or bottom) of the food chain, what matters most to us, is the solution’s usability or functionality and of cause, its cost implication.  I can dream of having the best available solution in the market but if I do not have the means to own it, it will still remain in the wish list and will never see the light of the day. In my line of duty, I have to do tough choices although knowing what I get may not be what I wish due to various reasons (obviously, $$$ is one major concern these days).

Open Source to me, is god send. It gets specific job done at no cost (subjects to its licensing policy) but again, my investment in terms of labor will be higher as skilled Open Source fella is rather hard to come by. Proprietary solutions on the other hand, has a strong followers and talents are easily available in the market at the RIGHT price. Besides, you’ll know who to call when you got into trouble, yes, I know, some Open Source solution providers do have subscription based support services at a reasonable fee, but, this is quite different comparing to the proprietary solution boys.

So, what is my take on this? I will continue to do the HYBRID mix & match. What matters to me by end of the day is the quantum of benefits realized, and yes, contrary to common believes, the journey is not matter to me.

Project Management. What are we managing? The Project? Are we kidding ourselves? We are managing PEOPLE here, the very essence that makes thing happens. Its you, me and all others that happened to play a role in producing a product or an outcome complying to specifications and within an agreed time and cost. That is the very essence of how a PROJECT is being defined in PRINCE2, which stands for PRoject IN Control Environment.

Why is adopting a project management methodology so important?  The interesting thing about everyone of us with regards to this topic is, everyone is doing some form of project management, working on deadlines, scope of work, roles and responsibilities and every bits that will bring us to completion of a project or a desired output. However, are we doing it right? how do we make sure that the right decisions are being made at the right level of people? what should we do if we have a budget overrun situation? who should be aware or being notified of the exceptions and who can call the shot? All these are usually not addressed in a manner that allows clear accountability and transparency.

So, when a project went terribly wrong, there are only limited options available to a project manager. One of those, will probably be putting or investing more resources into the project and hoping it will deliver by end of day. Well, it may works if your project sponsor has a deep pocket and desperately need this project to be successful.

Premature termination or closure of project is another viable option, but be warned, get yourself ready, some heads may roll. Admittedly, there are so many uncalled situations and elements that will impact your project in so many ways, the only way that we can think of, is to adopt a established  project management methodology, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.