Applying Open Source development practices inside a company

Abstract

Open Source Software development is seen as a panacea by many companies. The promise of community-style development, innovation and cost savings drive the wider adoption of OSS in companies. However, it is still difficult to institutionalize the open and agile culture of sharing innovation especially into larger departmentalized organizations. The aim of this research paper is to investigate the characteristics of one successful OSS development implementation approach limited inside a company (Inner source). Based on our data, we argue that there are possibilities for employing OSS as a new kind of development process within a company and leveraging thus the innovation potential inside the company. © 2008 International Federation for Information Processing.