Our ability to institutionally learn from past mistakes can be hobbled. This is particularly challenging when the open source way is not ingrained in to all aspects of your business; this is rather common, keeping open source as a development methodology but otherwise running the business in a traditional fashion.

The Open Source Way is one part of fixing this. We need roadmaps even when we think we know all the routes by heart.

As with many of these "does it right, does it wrong" items, there is an irony at work here. You may have learned serious lessons from past mistakes, yet still see many of the same ones repeated continuously.

You find this when the organization is not listening to the memory keepers, who attempt to speak up and remind that this has been tried before.

For example, trying to solve problems with closed, proprietary software because of a desire to get something running quickly. Experience shows that, just as we try to teach our customers, over the medium to long term, that decision is going to cost more than engaging with an open solution from the start.