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TopCoder : Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

TopCoder : Developing Software through Crowdsourcing. Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin, Eric Lonstein Harvard Business School 31 May 2012 Yalçın YENİGÜN 04 November 2013. Managing TopCoder. The Supply Side :

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TopCoder : Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

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  1. TopCoder : Developing Software through Crowdsourcing Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin, Eric Lonstein Harvard Business School 31 May 2012 Yalçın YENİGÜN 04 November 2013

  2. Managing TopCoder The Supply Side : • George Tsipolitis (Vice President) : «When you are managing a community, you are no longer managing indivituals. We can’t control individuals, we can only control the process of their participation.» • Risk: The community could be unforgiven

  3. Managing TopCoder • Attraction: • TopCoder needed to have access to a critical mass of talent and coding capacity. • Solutions: • Algorithm contests • Paying for Google keyword searches using terms such as «design contests» • Member development days at international universities

  4. Managing TopCoder • Norms: • TopCoder had to maintain the highest standarts of contest integrity, fairness, transparency and quality. • Ex: No tolerance to cheating • Using unauthorized code = eliminating from contest • Contest transparency: Storing all contests and statistics in a dataware house

  5. Managing TopCoder • Governance: • TopCoder executives are responsible for final decisions • Executives got feedback from community by forums • Disagreement between contestant & reviewer: TopCoder employee and contestant investigated

  6. Managing TopCoder • Resource allocation: • Controlling contest participation • Run contests concurrently • Not to act like a community boss • Hughes : «We don’t own this community. We want people to be here when they want to be here.»

  7. Managing TopCoder • Retention: • TopCoder supply community members with consistent work streams and prize money • Get feedback for contests • Flexible working hours • Members can also develop TopCoder’s internal systems

  8. Managing TopCoder The Demand Side : • Platform Managers: • Provide project status updates to clients • Make suggestions for contest prize amounts • Define contest requirements • Support role after delivery • High Cost ($100.000 for year)

  9. Managing TopCoder The Demand Side : • TopCoder Direct: • Client used the company’s platform with little or no intervention (self-service) • Platform managers: educate clients to use platform • Platform managers: co-pilot • Reduce platform manager cost

  10. Future • 2010 : revenue doubled • Competitions increased 30% • 275000 members • Contract with NASA • TopCoder Direct : driving 2010’s success • 2011 : more than 300000 members • Experienced copilots

  11. Future • RentACoder, Elance, oDesk: buy talent approach • Offering more money would increase participation • What would happen if TopCoder clients expanded? • What would happen if a company like Accenture started to develop software in the same way as TopCoder? • Would the TopCoder community remain intact?

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