Category: 2. Building Products

  • CTO vs. VP of Engineering

    CTO vs. VP of Engineering

    In tech companies, startups and large companies alike, of the many roles you need to define, two seem to be particularly confusing to German startups: The CTO and the VP of Engineering role. Many German startups I’ve seen simply have a person titled CTO who does both (and sometimes neither). These two roles are very…

  • Escalating Levels of Complexity in Inner Source Projects

    Escalating Levels of Complexity in Inner Source Projects

    Yesterday, I discussed what makes a good pilot project in inner source. The main thrust of the suggestion was not to start with a big bang but rather to choose a relevant but not too large project. This begs the question of complexity of projects, specifically viewed from an inner source perspective. How should you…

  • Getting Started With Inner Source

    Getting Started With Inner Source

    I received several requests recently for my inner source charter document to provide it in DOC format, after I thought this work had fallen dormant (or perhaps the PDF version was sufficient). So I wanted to add my thoughts on how to take first steps in inner source, in particular in the selection of a…

  • Open source and inner source at IAV (in German)

    Open source and inner source at IAV (in German)

    The house magazine of IAV Automotive Engineering GmbH, a major supplier to the German automotive industry, interviewed Markus Blonn and me about open source and inner source at IAV (in German). We had a good time as you can see 😉

  • Upcoming talk on ten years of inner source case studies at UC Santa Cruz

    Upcoming talk on ten years of inner source case studies at UC Santa Cruz

    Abstract Inner sourcing is the use of open source best practices within companies to improve engineering productivity. In 2006, I introduced inner source to SAP. After becoming a professor, my group helped further companies introduce inner source to their engineering organizations. Using three generations of projects, we report about our experiences and how we are…

  • Upcoming talk on industry best practices for corporate open source governance of software supply chains at UC Santa Cruz

    Upcoming talk on industry best practices for corporate open source governance of software supply chains at UC Santa Cruz

    Abstract Almost all software products today incorporate open source software either directly or through software supply chains, but many companies are not properly governing their use of open source, incurring potential risks. Since 2016, I have been researching industry best practices and processes around open source governance, focusing on software supply chains. I have interviewed…