Get hype for CDF

_posts/2019-01-31-lets-go-cdf.md

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+---
+layout:
+title: "Get excited for the Continuous Delivery Foundation"
+tags:
+- cdf
+- cicd
+- jenkins
+- opensource
+---
+
+Not knowing what I was getting myself into, about eleven years ago I started
+contributing to what became known as the Jenkins project. What followed has
+been nothing short of incredible; hundreds of new contributors, tens of
+thousands of new users, and millions of executed pipelines. Growth is
+challenging. Growth means new problems which demand new solutions.  Two and a
+half years ago I stood in front of a large group of contributors at the 2017
+Jenkins World Contributor Summit and made a pitch for what I called a "Jenkins
+Software Foundation", never shy to pilfer ideas from the
+[Python](https://python.org) community. With help from my pal [Chris
+Aniszczyk](https://twitter.com/cra) and the Linux Foundation, the concept
+morphed into something far more comprehensive the **Continuous Delivery
+Foundation** (CDF), for which my colleague [Tracy
+Miranda](https://github.com/tracymiranda) has been leading the charge, helping
+drive the founding of the CDF.
+
+
+[Kohsuke](https://github.com/kohsuke) wrote up a good [overview post for the
+jenkinsci-dev@ mailing
+list](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-dev/CAN4CQ4z%2BQzaBc1pDtciKXH%3DMhB3vUR%3DCShiFbwy__2W6eEH_EQ%40mail.gmail.com)
+which spells out the reasons why the Jenkins project should join the Continuous
+Delivery Foundation once it has been established. For those interested in the
+Jenkins project, I encourage you to take the time to read Kohsuke's mail if you
+have not already. In _this_ post, I wanted to share some of the reasons that _I_
+am excited to help establish the Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF).
+
+
+Continuous Delivery (CD) has been an integral part of my career, something which I
+learned early and became passionate about, even before it was so clearly
+characterized by Jez Humble. I view it to be so fundamental to the practice of
+software development, that I have started to react like a puzzled puppy when
+somebody says they don't practice CI or CD. Imagine if somebody said "eh,
+we've got a project to adopt Source Control here, but the executives aren't
+really convinced yet." Your eye would twitch and your jaw would drop. "How can
+any organization not use Source Control in this day and age?!" I believe CD is
+_that_ fundamental to modern software development.
+
+Continuous Delivery is also **not** the domain a single tool like Jenkins, but
+rather relies on many tools working together in concert.  While I might put
+Jenkins at the center of it all, it is by no means the only pretty face in the
+picture. Unfortunately, many open source communities like Jenkins tend to have
+a necessarily narrower view of their world. They focus on _their_ thing, which
+makes sense, but this can result in missed opportunities for incredibly
+valuable cross-over episodes.
+
+Many of the tools we rely on for CD are supported wholly, or in part by
+different vendors as well. Jenkins receives substantial investment from
+CloudBees, as well as Microsoft and Red Hat to name a few. In the last five
+years, I have come to understand how and why foundations such as the CDF, can
+act as neutral territory for these different companies. By providing corporate
+contributors a set of guidelines, rules, and expectations, open source
+projects stand a much greater chance of eliciting support from them. Whether
+it's advocacy, code, or cash, helping bring corporate contributors under the
+same neutral tent as the rest of us helps ensure the longevity of open source
+efforts. The added benefit of the rules set forth by the foundation is that
+corporate actors cannot overrun one another or individual contributors,
+intentionally or otherwise.
+
+In the earlier days of free and open source projects, we deluded ourselves into
+thinking that everybody would read our licenses, subscribe to our "open source
+ethos", file and fix issues, and contribute code back upstream. The reality is
+that it takes a lot more to _operate_ large open source communities. It takes
+_people_, it takes _infrastructure_, and it takes _money_. Foundations like the
+CDF provide a means for organizations which depend on, or are otherwise
+invested in projects, to participate in a meaningful way. The Jenkins
+project runs on a shoe-string budget. We spend no more than $10-15k annually.
+If we were to tabulate the value of our donated assets, free services, or any
+of the other things I have managed to beg for over the past eleven years, that
+number would be closer to 60-80k annually. Kohsuke can attest to my ability to
+beg for free stuff for the Jenkins project, but free stuff is not guaranteed
+year to year. In order to grow, Jenkins needs a stable budget which we can
+invest in services and **people,** similar to larger foundations like the
+[FreeBSD Foundation](https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/what-we-do/grants/). 
+
+If you find yourself worried about the sustainability of open source,
+looking at different community homes, crowd-funding, or other ideological tools such
+as licensing changes, let me help you out. What makes large open source projects
+sustainable is a consistent budget. Because underneath it all, what makes open source projects "go"
+is _people_. Ensuring talented writers, developers, marketers, testers, and
+designers continue to contribute means that their employers have to invest time
+on their behalf, or they need to be paid through other means. I strongly
+believe that open source foundations provide a path for larger free and open
+source projects to solve that fundamental problem of _budget_.
+
+
+The Continuous Delivery Foundation is not yet launched, but I'm already excited
+for its potential. Not only for the Jenkins project, but for the entire domain
+of continuous delivery.
+
+It's about time.