ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how a new CO-free and open source software (FOSS) project can evolve into a more mature FOSS product, taking into account the growth of larger developer and user communities, the creation of public forums, and various other organizational considerations that surround such growth. However, a CO-FOSS project does provide opportunities for finding ongoing professional developer support. Many CO-FOSS projects have been developed for specific clients that are part of a larger network of similar organizations with similar software needs. Early in the life of an emergent CO-FOSS product, a decision should be made to use a Web-based hosting service for managing releases and encouraging communication among all of its developers and users. A newly-established CO-FOSS project should already have an issue-tracking activity where the client has posted several new issues and the developers have addressed them.
