| layout | title | nav_order | has_children | permalink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
default |
Open Source Contributions |
2 |
true |
/Contributions-2-3-Ind |
A company’s contribution to open source development can significantly enhance its market image and that is more likely to happen if the project also has a good reputation and performance. This promotes goodwill among customers and partners and boosts the company’s attractiveness as an employer. In today’s competitive talent market, a strong brand associated with innovation and community contribution can be an important decision factor for potential employees. Preparing the business to handle open source software development A company considering engaging in open source software development should as part of its preparation consider these areas:
- Governance structure
- Contribution strategy
- Contribution process
- Contribution team
- Awareness and training
Governance structure: A formal governance structure with a stated ownership shall specify a company strategy & policy. It shall also include a mandated process with guidelines of how contributions are to be made with documented criteria for contribution decisions. The governance shall also provide a declaration of the involved roles with responsibility including a declaration of who owns the final decision to make the contribution or not.
Contribution strategy: Declaring a company stance on open source software contributions in terms of sharing - its resources or financial support as well as its IPR - enables engagement. Establishing a strategy will provide guardrails of what type of contributions the company will perform with possible limitations of engagement. The range of possible engagement spans all previously mentioned contribution types, as listed in module 1.
Contribution process: A common company process outlining the required steps for making an open source contribution will enable a uniform contribution handling and thus minimize the risk of any unwanted effects, like unintended IPR sharing, from the intended contribution effort. It will also support overall awareness and possible synchronization between different contribution efforts and thus enable strategic overview.
Contribution team: Forming a cross competence team, for contribution management and support, may include representation of legal, IPR, technical and marketing for reviewing contribution requests and providing a documented recommendation for the approver, which might be the contribution team itself. The approver of the contribution request shall document the decision for future reference. Depending on the different type of contribution alternatives in combination with contribution volumes, there might exist a need of different contribution paths for review and decision. Such paths may include a review for blanket approvals within a specific scope, or continuous reviews for every contribution depending on sensitivity level.
Awareness and training: A general understanding of the open source software development area, including both consumption and contribution, is a necessity for consideration of a company open source development engagement.
The company could provide information fulfilling the needed basic level of open source software understanding, for instance through training. The company also should provide specific training for employees getting involved in the company contribution effort. Such training should also increase the awareness internally of the decided strategy, the roles involved and the process including the decision making.
A company guideline may be provided on how contribution and external engagement shall be performed by the employees as representatives of the company. Open source contribution engagement is also an opportunity of company branding which of course depends on the selected contribution stance.