Today, amid the ongoing financial ruin of the country, Boeing announced that it had hit further delays in building and ultimately delivering its 787 Dreamliner, the airplane it heavily promoted to compete with Airbus' even later A350.
To (presumably) reduce risk and defray costs, Boeing outsourced the manufacture of a significant number of components to a wide range of suppliers around the globe. Unfortunately, they did not deliver. Here's what happened according to the WSJ:
"To save money, Boeing gave unprecedented control over the development of key parts of the 787 to a wide network of suppliers world-wide. In many cases, those suppliers stumbled badly, leading to months of parts shortages and technical problems. Since Sept. 2007, Boeing has twice announced delays as the schedule has slipped from the original plan to deliver the first airplane in May 2008. In October, Boeing said that first delivery had been pushed back until November or December of 2008."
So, Boeing offered a carrot to numerous suppliers, many of whom apparently either misjudged badly or lied blatantly about their ability to deliver. To me, this is the major problem inherent with open source development - not necessarily the quality, but the fact that your open source developers are not locked to work in your schedule. Also, you have little or no control over what and how quickly they produce. So when it's a commodity function or product, outsource away! When it's a complex or critical program or product, I'd suggest thinking twice.
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