Starting with Inner Source

Presentation at the Open Source Strategy Forum by Daniel Izquierdo in London, November 2018.

Abstract: Inner source applies the lessons learned from open source way of developing software within organizations. This helps to scale organizations development strategy, break silos of developers, encourage internal collaboration, and be faster to market.

If we think about why open source has been so successful, we have to consider attributes such as transparency, communication, collaboration, innovation or meritocracy. And this can be applied internally within the walls of each organization creating an ‘internal open source’ or the so called inner source.

As more and more developers are becoming used to platforms such GitLab, GitHub, or Bitbucket, those are willing to use similar infrastructure and modern tools internally at their organizations. Thus, inner source is another way to modernize development teams, but at the same time, a way to be close to how open source is developed from a cultural point of view, process, and tooling.

Inner source can be considered then as a pre-step to publicly release a project. Ideally, only a press-button-action is the difference between having that project as inner source within the organization, or as open source, available to everyone.

Daniel will discuss best practices for innersourcing based on his participation in InnerSource Commons, a community of practitioners built for developing and sharing knowledge and patterns for successful innersourcing.

Transcript

1. Starting with Inner Source Open Source Strategy Forum London, 2018 Daniel Izquierdo Cortázar Chief Data Officer @dizquierdo https://bitergia.com https://speakerdeck.com/bitergia
2. Bitergia co-founder Software Development Analytics for Open and Inner Source Projects 100% Open Source https://innersourcecommons.org Community Health Analytics for OSS Projects https://chaoss.community
3. /org_development Proprietary Development Open Source Development
4. /org_development Vestibulum congue tempus Rest of the Software, OS, infra, libraries, etc 3 Vestibulum congue tempus Specific Context 2 Vestibulum congue tempus Business Value 1
5. /org_development Open Source Development Proprietary Development Inner Source Development
6. /org_development What is the valuable software for your business?
7. /org_development What is the valuable software for your business? The rest can be open sourced
8. /org_development But you should control your stack!
9. /org_development But you should control your stack! Think of Open Source Offices
10. /org_development This is not a talk about OSPOs or Open Source More about OSS Offices, brand risk, and Inner Source tomorrow at Danese’s talk! 10:00 am. “Getting the most out of OSS in a Regulated Industry”
11. /org_development But about Inner Source
12. /org_development Inner Source Development
13. /inner_source “InnerSource takes the lessons learned from developing open source software and applies them to the way companies develop software internally” https://innersourcecommons.org
14. /problem
15. /inner_source_why /companies ↑ Code Quality ↓ Time to market Innovation ↓Dev & maintenance costs ↑ Engagement
16. /inner_source_why /developers ↑ Skills (soft and hard) ↑ Dynamic environment Innovation ↑ Solve problems ↑ Empowerment
17. /inner_source_how Culture Communication Transparency Collaboration Community Meritocracy
18. /first_steps But this is Chaos!
19. /recommendations Start small, PoC
20. /recommendations Air Force, Ground Force
21. /recommendations Metrics to help in the process E.g.: Are you measuring how BUs collaborate? Chart produced by Bitergia using GrimoireLab
22. /recommendations Metrics to help in the process E.g.: Is the performance of your teams improving? Chart produced by Bitergia using GrimoireLab
23. /data_sources Chart produced by Bitergia using GrimoireLab Bitergia Analytics Supported Data Sources
24. /who_else
25. /commons InnerSource Commons Build a body of knowledge of inner source Understand, research and share best practices Work in a safe environment for the industry
26. /chatham_rule Chatham House Rule Applies “When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.” https://www.chathamhouse.org/chatham-house-rule
27. /commons
28. /commons Some of the last summit topics Cultural Change Tax Management Process Improvement Use Cases Metrics and monitoring Patterns
29. /commons InnerSource Commons Learning Path InnerSource Patterns InnerSource Manifesto Migrating to a Foundation
30. /commons A bit more about patterns Characterization of usual IS problems Brainstorming with other companies Bi-weekly meetings https://innersourcecommons.org/patterns
31. /commons A bit more about patterns Problem Short description. This describes what the issues and challenges are. Context Forces Resulting Context Solution
32. /commons A bit more about patterns Problem Context What are the pre-conditions of this problem? This is unchangeable before the solution goes into place. Forces Resulting Context Solution
33. /commons A bit more about patterns Problem Context Forces What makes the problem difficult? These are the constraints that can be changed at a cost. Resulting Context Solution
34. /commons A bit more about patterns Problem Context Forces Resulting Context Solution Verified or potential solutions to the problem. This solution will change some of the forces.
35. /commons A bit more about patterns Problem Context Forces Resulting Context Situation after the problem is solved. Solution
36. /commons Example: Review Committee https://github.com/paypal/InnerSourcePatterns/blob/master/review-committee.md
37. /commons InnerSource Commons Early April 2019 Galway, Ireland
38. /commons InnerSource Commons Slack channel (Chatham House Rule applies) Mailing lists GitHub (OSS project)
39. Starting with Inner Source Open Source Strategy Forum London, 2018 Daniel Izquierdo Cortázar Chief Data Officer @dizquierdo https://bitergia.com https://speakerdeck.com/bitergia