It's important to have a clear objective for any open source software. When it comes to open source software, projects can become bloated with features and improvements that doesn't agree with the projects initial objective. Description This short session will take examples of leading open source software, with Drupal examples included, on how open source software maintainers should say "No" often and have a clear objective for the software they maintain . This doesn't mean you should be rude to the contributors! We'll find the perfect balance between making the software open for modification without compromising the core goal of the software. This will help us have a minimal, effective and easy to maintain software that doesn't break when you upgrade and doesn't become painful to maintain .

1. Why, When, and How to say “No”
No!
Ayesh Karunaratne | https://ayesh.me/talk/No

2. Hallo!

3. Ayesh Karunaratne
Freelance Software Architect
@Ayeshlive
https://ayesh.me
Ayesh

4. PHP 7+
The why’s and the how’s
Ayesh Karunaratne
So… One of the reviews of that presentation was that my English dialect was hard to follow.1.For this time, I have added English subtitles to the presentation.1.Just look at the bottom of the screen.1.No, I’m just joking… I’m not natively English, and if you have any questions, please, um… raise your hand.1.[audience clearly confused]

6. No!

7. ACME REVIEWS INC.
Review platform
Coupon code platform
User Ranking
Contact Users
Chat
Anonymous
Custom Questions
Full Surveys
Coupon code aggregator
Affiliate codes
Gamification
Useless Badges
Referral platform
Generate/Validate codes
Payment Handling
Local Payment Options
Localization
Time zonesLanguages
Currency
Consumers
Social Login
Security,
duplicates

8. 19 Months

9. Cost $ 70,000

10. 19 Free Trial Customers

11. 3 Paying Customers

12. $ 27 Revenue

14. Focus

15. WordPress
Focuses on end-users

16. https://wordpress.org/about/stats/

17. https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php

19. 30% of the entire web runs on
WordPress
https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all

20. Apple
Focuses on simplicity and trouble-free functionality

21. Steve Jobs (Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference, 1997)
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus
on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the
hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.
I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I
have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.
“
“

22. Apple Inc: $1 Trillion Market Cap
https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all

23. Leadership

24. Niklaus Wirth
A primary cause of complexity is that software vendors uncritically
adopt almost any feature that users want.“ “

25. It’s important to have a leadership that unbiasedly
listens to user criticism, but still makes the decisions
for the future of the project.

26. Drupal

27. • Project Lead
• Core Maintainers
• Module Maintainers
• Code Review Administrators
• Security Team
• Community Working Group
• Drupal.org and CI Infrastructure
• Drupal Association
• User Groups

28. Communication

29. Linux

30. 17 Unix Rules
Rule of Modularity
Rule of Generation
Rule of Extensibility
Rule of Robustness
Rule of Diversity
Rule of Silence
Rule of Separation
Rule of Parsimony
Rule of Transparency
Rule of Clarity
Rule of Simplicity
Rule of Representation
Rule of Least Surprise
Rule of Economy
Rule of Repair
Rule of Composition
Rule of Optimization

32. Documentation leaves less room for surprises
When the leadership says “No”.

33. Being friendly and cheerful helps to have an
Active and loyal community.
Saying no isn’t fun, but “Your contribution doesn’t match this project’s criteria” feels less
personal than “I don’t like your contribution”.
Symfony documentation

36. Extensibility

37. Niklaus Wirth
Our ultimate goal is extensible programming (EP). By this, we
mean the construction of hierarchies of modules, each module adding
new functionality to the system.
“ “

38. Approaches for Extensibility in Code
• SOLID principles (link)
• Principle of least privilege (for security)(link)
• Finely defined support windows
• API versions, Semantic versioning
• Plugin-based architecture
• Hierarchy of leadership

39. 1.[dramatic pause]

40. Focus
Leadership
Communication
Extensibility

41. The Less Is More

43. Thank YouDanke

44. Become a Drupal contributor
Friday from 9am
● First timers workshop
● Mentored contribution
● General contribution

45. Why, When, and How to say “No”
No!
Ayesh Karunaratne | https://ayesh.me/talk/No