Software Research and the Industry
Research publications and comments on the software industry, open source, and 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 …
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 😉
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 …
Continue reading “Upcoming Talk on Ten Years of Inner Source Case Studies at UC Santa Cruz”
I was recently asked why I argue against company-internal marketplaces for software components yet emphasize the need for pricing components that cross company boundaries within the same holding company (also known as transfer pricing). The answer is simple: Setting up an internal marketplace is a managerial choice and pricing the movement of code (IP) across …
Continue reading “Internal Component Marketplaces vs. Transfer Pricing of Inner Source”
Agile methods reacquainted developers with the idea of working from business value rather than focusing on technical concerns only. Agile methods are therefore often equated with feature-driven development, in which work is driven by features prioritized by business value irrespective of technical consequences. This thinking can create code silos and wreak havoc on software architecture …
I just listened to Eberhard Wolff’s BED-Con talk on microservice-based system architectures, which he prefers to call Independent Systems Architectures (ISA). One purpose of calling it ISA is to emphasize that there should be no common data model and no shared reusable libraries between microservices. Obviously, by discounting reuse, ISA may increase development speed short-term …
Georg Grütter of Bosch recorded my keynote at the Inner Source Commons summit in Renningen, Germany, on May 16th, 2018, and put it on Youtube. Please watch it below (original video, local copy). According to Georg, the video is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (for the Bosch part) and I agree (for my part). Hence …
Continue reading “Ten Years of Inner Source Case Studies (Video)”
Actually, I just notice it is the fourth time within the last two months, but tomorrow is the first time I’ll present our research on inner source in a public venue. If you are interested in ten years of case studies on how to use open source best practices within companies (called inner source), come …
Continue reading “Third Time’s the Charm: Ten Years of Inner Source Case Studies”
I got asked the other day why there are only two research groups working on inner source world-wide. Inner source is the use of open source best practices within companies, and it is a hot topic with many companies who want to go beyond agile. There was varied research around the world in the past …
Continue reading “Why are There Only Two Research Groups Working on Inner Source?”
During my talk at the inner source summit, I was asked about the following worry with establishing inner source at a company: But if we lay all source code open within the company, don’t we run the risk that a disgruntled employee has it too easy to steal all code and publish it on the …
Continue reading “But What if Someone Steals My Inner Source Code?”