Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Inner Source Project Management

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Software Project Management in a Changing World

Abstract

Software development organizations are continuously looking for better ways to manage their projects. An emerging approach to achieve this is Inner Source, which refers to the adoption of Open Source development practices within the confines of an organization. With an Inner Source approach, individuals, teams, and departments within an organization can start software projects, very similar to the Open Source model. This affects the way projects are managed in a variety of ways. Firstly, it will affect strategic aspects such as a software sourcing strategy that includes decisions on which software can be “Inner-Sourced.” Secondly, at the tactical level, organizations should choose an appropriate Inner Source adoption model that suits the goals and scope of the organization. Finally, it will affect the operational aspects of a project, for example, in the way different people across a whole organization can access the source code and make improvements. Furthermore, Inner Source makes communication much more transparent. While Inner Source offers a variety of potential benefits to an organization, there are also a number of challenges to address. This chapter discusses how the introduction of Inner Source may affect conventional software developing environments and especially how it affects software project management aspects. Based on our studies and those presented in the literature, it outlines a number of benefits of Inner Source as well as a number of challenges and some suggestions as to how they can be addressed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://httpd.apache.org/.

  2. 2.

    http://struts.apache.org/.

  3. 3.

    http://opensource.org/licenses/index.html.

  4. 4.

    As of August 2013, there are 70 OSI-approved licenses.

  5. 5.

    http://www.lua.org.

  6. 6.

    www.collab.net

References

  • Abran A, Moore JW (2004) Guide to the software engineering body of knowledge. IEEE

    Google Scholar 

  • Ågerfalk PJ, Fitzgerald B (2008) Outsourcing to an unknown workforce: exploring open-sourcing as a global sourcing strategy. MISQ 32(2):385–409

    Google Scholar 

  • Capiluppi A, Stol K, Boldyreff C (2011) Software reuse in open source: a case study. Int J Open Source Softw Process 3(3):10–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capiluppi A, Stol K, Boldyreff C (2012) Exploring the Role of Commercial Stakeholders in Open Source Software Evolution. In: Hammouda I et al (eds) OSS 2012, IFIP AICT 378, pp 178–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinkelacker J, Garg PK, Miller R, Nelson D (2002) Progressive open source, 24th international conference on software engineering (ICSE), Orlando, FL, pp 177–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan WR (2013) A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK®guide), 5th edn. Project Management Institute (PMI), Newtown Square

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel K (2005) Producing open source software: how to run a successful free software project. O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaughan G, Fitzgerald B, Morgan L, Shaikh M (2007) An examination of the use of inner source in multinational corporations: a preliminary framework to understand inner source software development. In: Proceedings 1st OPAALS conference, pp 48–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaughan G, Fitzgerald B, Shaikh M (2009) An examination of the use of Open Source software processes as a global software development solution for commercial software engineering. In: 35th Euromicro conference on software engineering advanced applications (SEAA), pp 20–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurbani VK, Garvert A, Herbsleb JD (2006) A case study of a corporate open source development model. In: 28th international conference on software engineering, pp 472–481

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurbani VK, Garvert A, Herbsleb JD (2010) Managing a corporate open source software asset. Commun ACM 53(2):155–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes B, Cotterell M (2009) Software project management. McGraw-Hill, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Ierusalimschy R (2008) Lua Mailing List, reply of Roberto Ierusalimschy, one of the developers of Lua, Friday, 27 June. http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2008-06/msg00407.html

  • Kotter J (1996) Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindman J, Rossi M, Marttiin P (2008) Applying open source development practices inside a company. In: Russo B, Damiani E, Hissam S, Lundell B, Succi G (eds) Open source development, communities and quality. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindman J, Riepula M, Rossi M, Marttiin P (2013) Open source technology in intra-organisational software development–private markets or local libraries. In: Ericsson Lundstrom J, Wiberg M, Hrastinski S, Edenius M, Ågerfalk PJ (eds) Managing open innovation technologies. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Melian C, Mähring M (2008) Lost and gained in translation: adoption of open source software development at Hewlett-Packard. In: Russo B, Damiani E, Hissam S, Lundell B, Succi G (eds) Open source development, communities and quality. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan L, Feller J, Finnegan P (2011) Exploring inner source as a form of intra-organisational open innovation. In: Proceedings European conference on information systems

    Google Scholar 

  • Oručević-Alagić A, Höst M (2010) A case study on the transformation from proprietary to open source software. In: Boldyreff C, González-Barahona JM, Madey GR, Noll J, Ågerfalk PJ (eds) Open source software: new horizons. Springer, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Riehle D, Ellenberger J, Menahem T, Mikhailovski B, Natchetoi Y, Naveh B, Odenwald T (2009) Open collaboration within corporations using software forges. IEEE Softw 26(2):52–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stol K, Babar MA (2010) Challenges in using open source software in product development: a review of the literature. 3rd workshop on emerging trends in FLOSS research and development, co-located with international conference on software engineering, pp 17–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Stol K, Babar MA, Avgeriou P, Fitzgerald B (2011) A comparative study of challenges in integrating open source software and inner source software. Inf Softw Technol 53(12):1319–1336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stol K, Avgeriou P, Babar MA, Lucas Y, Fitzgerald B (2014) Key factors for adopting inner source. ACM Trans Softw Eng Methodol 23(2)

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Linden F (2009) Applying open source software principles in product lines. Upgrade 10(2):32–41

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Linden F, Lundell B, Marttiin P (2009) Commodification of industrial software: the case for open source. IEEE Softw 26(4):77–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitharana P, King J, Chapman HS (2010) Impact of internal open source development on reuse: participatory reuse in action. J Manage Inf Syst 27(2):277–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wesselius J (2008) The bazaar inside the cathedral: business models for internal markets. IEEE Softw 25(3):60–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Brian Fitzgerald for useful feedback on an earlier draft of this chapter. This work was conducted within the ITEA2-SCALARE project, supported by Vinnova and Enterprise Ireland, and further by Science Foundation Ireland grant 10/CE/I1855 to Lero — the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre (http://www.lero.ie), and by the Industrial Excellence Center EASE—Embedded Applications Software Engineering (http://ease.cs.lth.se).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Martin Höst & Alma Oručević-Alagić

  2. Lero—The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Klaas-Jan Stol

Authors
  1. Martin Höst
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Klaas-Jan Stol
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Alma Oručević-Alagić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Höst .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Günther Ruhe

  2. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Claes Wohlin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Höst, M., Stol, KJ., Oručević-Alagić, A. (2014). Inner Source Project Management. In: Ruhe, G., Wohlin, C. (eds) Software Project Management in a Changing World. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55035-5_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55035-5_14

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-55034-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-55035-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation