Inner Source

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inner Source ( English internal source , and internal company Open Source ) is the use of established open source practices in software development and the introduction of open-source-like culture within a company. The term comes from Tim O'Reilly in 2000.

motivation

Open source is a guarantee for high quality software. In addition, the open collaboration in open source projects proves to be particularly suitable for making collaboration even between direct competitors (e.g. ARM and Intel on the Linux kernel ) functional and meritocratic  . Software companies want to take advantage of this success: on the one hand, through the use of open source tools or software components in their proprietary software products , on the other hand, through the practices that have become established in the open source world.

Open Source Practices Adopted

In addition to many practices that have also become established in foundations such as the Apache Software Foundation , Linux Foundation or Eclipse Foundation , open and inner-source projects require open collaboration and communication as well as functioning quality assurance. An essential tool for realizing this transparency is the use of a central software forge.

Open collaboration

In order to be able to work together sensibly and effectively in open source projects, all necessary development artifacts (e.g. code, documentation, issue tracker) must be made accessible to everyone.

Open communication

Open communication in open source is characterized by the fact that it is generally visible, complete, archivable, asynchronous and takes place in written form in order to give all potential employees the opportunity to interact. This is often implemented through forums , mailing lists or similar tools.

Quality assurance through separation of code contribution and integration

With the help of dedicated reviews and the distinction between contributor (code contributor) and committer (integrator, developer with writing rights), the quality in open source projects is ensured.

Use

In addition to the quality attributes that open source software promises, the following advantages are reported:

More efficient and effective development
Overcoming organizational boundaries
  • Distribution of costs and risks across organizational units
  • Collaboration across organizational boundaries
  • Program-wide exchange of information
More successful reuse
  • Use of competence outside of organizational units
  • Decoupling of software component providers and re-users
  • Relief of software component providers
Better software
Greater flexibility when using developers
  • Simplified entry into development for new developers
  • Simplified development of geographically dispersed developers
Improved knowledge management
  • Community learning
  • Openness and availability of knowledge
Higher employee motivation

distribution

The following companies, among others, report on the use of Inner Source:

Key factors for use

Inner Source can be a very promising approach for large companies developing software. However, it may not be suitable in all facets. The following nine factors, categorized into three categories, can be used to assess the extent to which Inner Source might be appropriate.

Product factors

  • Product placement to attract a community
  • Multiple stakeholders for a wide variety of contributors
  • Modularity to attract contributors and users

Process and tool factors

Organizational and Community Factors

  • Coordination and leadership to support the creation of an internal performance society
  • Transparency to open up the organization
  • Management support and motivation to involve people

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tim O'Reilly: Open Source and OpenGL - O'Reilly Media. (No longer available online.) In: archive.oreilly.com. Archived from the original on January 4, 2017 ; accessed on January 4, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / archive.oreilly.com
  2. ↑ Kevin Crowston, Kangning Wei, James Howison, Andrea Wiggins: Free / Libre open-source software development: What we know and what we do not know . Ed .: ACM. tape 44 , no. 2 . ACM Computing Surveys, ISSN  0360-0300 , doi : 10.1145 / 2089125.2089127 .
  3. ↑ a b Maximilian Capraro, Dirk Riehle: Inner Source Definition, Benefits, and Challenges . In: ACM (Ed.): ACM Computing Surveys . tape 49 , no. 4 . ACM, ISSN  0360-0300 , doi : 10.1145 / 2856821 .
  4. ^ Andy Oram: Getting Started with InnerSource . 1st edition. O'Reilly Media, Inc., ISBN 978-1-4919-3758-7 .
  5. ^ Klaas-Jan Stol, Paris Avgeriou, MA Babar, Yan Lucas, Brian Fitzgerald: Key factors for adopting inner source . 23rd edition. ACM, 2014, p. 1 , doi : 10.1145 / 2533685 .