Boundary Critique and Stakeholder Collaboration in Open Source Software Migration: A Case Study

This paper investigates the contribution of stakeholder collaboration during an open source software migration using a case study. The case study is based on the Presidential National Commission, a South African government department that migrated from proprietary software to open source software in 2007. The organization was one of the few that migrated to open source software as part of a South African government initiative. The case study consisted of semi-structured interviews with the participants involved in the migration. The interviews centered on the contribution of stakeholder collaboration during the software migration using a boundary critique. The results suggest that stakeholder collaboration can contribute to open source software migration. From a managerial perspective, business leaders must understand the value of stakeholder collaboration in open source software migration. Boundary critique can be an important tool for achieving broader collaboration of stakeholders. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2151-0.ch012