An Example Charter for Inner Source Programs

Inner source soft­ware devel­op­ment is firm-internal soft­ware devel­op­ment that uses the prin­ci­ples of open source soft­ware devel­op­ment to col­lab­o­rate across intra-organizational bound­aries that would oth­er­wise hin­der any such col­lab­o­ra­tion. Inner source breaks down the bar­ri­ers to col­lab­o­ra­tion across devel­op­ment silos by set­ting up an inter­nal ecosys­tem of read­i­ly avail­able soft­ware com­po­nents. To get start­ed with inner source, com­pa­nies need to define their goals and then set up a gov­er­nance struc­ture for an inner source pro­gram and the projects with­in to reach those goals. This gov­er­nance struc­ture is often cod­i­fied in the form of a char­ter doc­u­ment. This tech­ni­cal report presents an exam­ple char­ter for an inner source pro­gram. The goal is for com­pa­nies to be able to copy and adjust this char­ter for their own needs. Towards this pur­pose, the char­ter leaves open the many deci­sions to be made, but out­li­nes the options that any com­pa­ny needs to decide upon when estab­lish­ing an inner source pro­gram.