Constitutional affairs legal affairs

Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software 
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stations to a LiMux Client peculiar to the city administration, a large part of the IT of the 
city administration has been transferred to a municipal undertaking, IT@M, with took effect 
from 1.1.2012. And it is precisely for the reorganised Munich IT that the LiMux project is to 
provide a standardised, open source-based modern IT platform. 
One guarantee of success has been the continuity of staffing in the ramp up and migration 
phase. There have been particularly few changes among the technical staff in these phases. 
That has been very important, because as a result of the migration to open source-based 
work stations, the organisation’s own responsibility for developing and operating the 
system is constantly increasing. 
The core team is therefore the nucleus of the overall project, i.e. all its strategic and 
operational decisions have a direct impact on the success of the project. For that reason, 
we regard it as the prime mover of the project and the origin of its success. Many members 
of the core team came to the city specifically to work on the project, and, even if they do 
not regard themselves as open-source evangelists, they do see themselves as promoters of 
the open source community. 
3.2  The City Council: the legal and legitimating authority 
The LiMux project initially made it at least into one or two headlines. USA Today even 
reported the decision by Munich City Council on its front page
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. Thus, from the outset, the 
project had a high profile in the media. The Social Democrats and Greens cited Linux in 
their municipal election campaigns with reference to the concept of freedom, which worked 
well as advertising. In 2003, 2004 and 2007, the City Council took the main decisions in 
favour of the project, in some cases with cross-party support; additional decisions have 
been necessary because the project has been kicked of in 2003, a detailed concept has 
been finished in 2004 and the budget had to be modified in 2010. In its 2004 decision, the 
City Council even approved project funding in excess of what had been requested, and 
expanded the aims of the project. In accordance with the importance thus attached to it, 
the Deputy Mayor was immediately assigned organisational responsibility for the project. 
The controlling political majority is both a fellow campaigner for the project and its sponsor. 
Even if occasional criticisms of the open source strategy are voiced, the City Council is 
standing by its decision and bolstering that strategy. 
The governance structure is one of the reliable factors in the project. The guidelines for the 
project are brought into line with the guiding principles of the policy pursued by the 
controlling majority. This gives the project the requisite legal basis and at the same time 
imparts political legitimacy to its aspiration to act as a ‘beacon of independence’. This 
strong backbone is needed for a project so sensitive to the type of media cover it receives 
(see Section 3.10 on the public as a stakeholder). 
3.3  An open and supportive Staff Committee 
Under the Bavarian Staff Representation Act, the Public Service Staff Committee possesses 
extensive responsibilities, rights and obligations. It is the dialogue partner for staff and 
management with regard to such topics as the staff establishment and promotions, 
equipment in the workplace, cooperation with staff and staff satisfaction. Whenever major 
changes are planned in the workplace, it is necessary to consult the Staff Committee at an 
early stage, which is required not only by law but also in the interest of cultural fairness. 
The Staff Committee was invited to participate at an early stage, even while decisions were 
being prepared overall and preliminary studies drafted. The business unit Staff Committee 
and the overall Staff Committee were kept informed from the moment when the idea was 
first mooted until the migration was planned, and were also invited to deliver opinions. 
Project aims and procedures were presented and debated in all decision-making bodies of 
the Staff Committee. The initial city-wide introduction of an e-learning system was 
discussed particularly intensively, resulting in an agreement with the Umbrella Staff 
Committee. Subsequently, the ‘LiMux World of Learning’ was devised, which in 2007 
                                                 
178 Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 13.07.2003: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-07-
13-microsoft-linux-munich_x.htm 

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Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs 
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received the Eurelia Award for an innovative and employee-friendly IT platform. It 
supplements the numerous training measures accompanying the migration and the new 
workplace software solutions. 
3.4  The IT high level management team: a bastion of strength in 
times of disunity 
Leadership is what matters – or at least, that is the conventional wisdom. In the LiMux 
project, it is the IT high level management team that is particularly vital. The team is a 
bastion of strength in the project. Derived from the above-mentioned governance model, 
the whole management and leadership team supports the aims of the project. From the 
Deputy Mayor, via the Director and IT Supervisor of the City of Munich, the Divisional Head 
within the Directorate and works manager of the municipal undertaking IT@M, and an 
Advisory Board, to the project leader, everybody is convinced that the project is feasible. 
The establishment of regular communication, however, involved a few learning curves. Up 
to reaching the project’s objectives, bimonthly steering committees, monthly reporting 
deadlines with the IT Supervisor and weekly meetings with the immediate management 
ensured that, within the administration, the necessary attention was paid to developments 
in accordance with the aims. If problems arise, a mentor provides the necessary support. 
The involvement of the business units heads at the highest level is arranged by means of 
needs-based reports at the weekly reporting sessions by the Deputy Mayor and/or the IT 
Supervisor of the City of Munich. 
The perseverance of the management hierarchy secured the project at the times of 
greatest peril. 
The IT management team is the promoter of the project, and always keeps an eye on the 
practical constraints of the business units and municipal undertakings. 
3.5  The role of IT managers as driving forces and opinion formers 
Such a far-reaching project – affecting every single work station – requires excellent 
cooperation between the core teams and the migration fields. It is at this interface that the 
unit project leaders within the business units are located. Much effort was required in 
order to define specifically the roles of the unit project leaders in the respective migration 
fields and then for the relevant business unit heads to appoint staff to these posts. From 
the outset, this stakeholder group gave considerable impetus to the project in the form of 
critical, but always constructive, observations. Here, as in the case of the technical 
managers (see below), it was necessary to drive cultural change by introducing an open 
source strategy in the face of some resistance. The role of the unit project leaders is central 
to the success of the project, because they bear operational responsibility for the migration 
in their own fields. Today, the unit project leaders are at least fellow campaigners for the 
new IT Strategy, if not indeed promoters of it, even if they always continue to criticise, 
because their whole objective is the smooth provision of services by the City of Munich to 
its citizens. 
This change of attitude has been assisted by a series of measures: 
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An initial strategy at the beginning of the project helped to dispel any doubts. 
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Visibility  of the IT managers to the steering committee and also to politicians 
accentuates responsible action. 
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The monthly meetings between all the unit project leaders are the main platform 
for exchanges among them and have now also become an important medium of 
communication with representatives of competing interests elsewhere. 
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Support from the migration coordinators in the planning and preparation of the 
migration is an early guarantor of quality and commitment. 
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The introduction of release and test management, partly at the recommendation 
of the unit project leaders, has substantially improved the reliability of our own 
planning and of the LiMux-Client. 

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