Tuesday 10 April 2012

Project Management at OWASP

What OWASP needs ASAP is Project Management (the type Paulo was doing).

In fact, we don't need 1, we need 4 or 5 project managers....

But I will settle for one in the short term,

There is a HUGE amount of work that needs to be done by the OWASP Operational machine, and THAT is where we (OWASP) needs to be putting our resources (i.e. creating the 'OWASP Platform') .

At the moment we (OWASP) can't even accept and guide projects that want to become OWASP projects!!! And let's not forget the 'huge' (i.e. none) support we give our current projects leaders (Hey !..I'm one of those OWASP Leaders that feels quite abandoned at a conner of the OWASP Project's landscape...)


In fact, the other two tragedies (and losses for owasp) are when regular OWASP contributors and members of our community:
  • choose NOT to host their projects at OWASP, because they see no value in doing that!
  • choose NOT to join an OWASP projects and contribute, because they don't know how, there is nobody on the other side, or the project is a mess and not easy to see where to start!
And being harsh on us (since we need to), why should they move their project to OWASP or Contribute? It's too much hard work, there are two many politics, emails don't get answered, etc...

We (i.e. OWASP) treat our project leader as dirt, we don't know who they are, we don't give them any support, we might even (if some OWASP conference organizers have their way) ask them to pay an entrance fee at our conferences (so that they (the project leaders) become a profit center).

This needs to change!!!

Our leader (projects, chapters, conferences, etc...) are our most valuable asset, and we (OWASP) need to hire the resources (i.e. project manager) required to deal with them in the most professional, cordial, quick and focused way (which is what Paulo was doing (and Kate, Sarah, Allison , Kelly do every day))