How to Establish an Open Source Program Office

It feels like some people don’t have a strong understanding of open source. Some misunderstandings have come from working with open source in an environment filled with proprietary software. When the words “open” and “source” were brought together, there was a visceral reaction. People were skeptical of it. Some even despised it.

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to bring open source into your ecosystem. But it does require a strong champion. That’s why Lee Calcote (@lcalcote) advocates for creating a specific office.

The Reason to Create an Open Source Program Office

Why even create an open source program office? The answer to this question depends on what kind of environment you’re in. Are you in a large business? Perhaps you want one in order to increase industry influence. Or perhaps it will help increase talent.

For many organizations, it can be very much about compliance. You may be using open-source software but not sure if you’re following the necessary regulations for using it.

Prominence

You may have heard of the term “software is eating the world.” This means that software is touching more and more parts of all industries. In a similar way, cloud is eating the software world. Open source is touching almost every software system through cloud tooling.

Benefits

Open source programs have brought many benefits, such as

• Awareness of use
• Development velocity
• Compliance
• Influence

Organizations with an influential open source program can attract better talent, too.

Strategy

To put together a good strategy for starting an open source program, here are 5 C’s to follow:

1. Consumption—Getting your organization to use open source. Using open source can significantly speed up delivery. It can give you more flexibility to modify the code as you need.
2. Compliance—Ensuring licensing and security is compliant with regulations. Having good (Read more...)