Inner Source: Coming to a Company Near You Soon!

Abstract

The nature of software development has changed significantly over the last decade or so, driven by trends such as an increasing level of software outsourcing, distributed development and collaborative development models. One such model of collaborative and distributed development that has attracted significant attention in both industry and research communities is that of Open Source. Open Source development seems to defy traditional wisdom in software development --- with a seeming absence of a predefined process, open source communities have produced high-quality and successful products. Increasingly, large organizations are looking to reproduce such emerging and collaborative development projects by adopting the open source development paradigm within their organizations. This phenomenon is labelled "Inner Source". This talk will present the results of four years of research into Inner Source. Specifically, the talk will address questions such as why companies would want to adopt Inner Source and what factors are important when adopting Inner Source. The talk will draw from several industry cases of Inner Source.