Tools for Managing Open Source Programs: A Free Guide

Is your organization looking to build out an open source program? If so, you’re not alone, but not every organization has a holistic sense of the available tools that can help create a healthy program. A simple charter document and a few spreadsheets for tracking projects won’t cut it anymore in managing a truly robust open source program. That’s where the new Tools for Managing Open Source Programs guide comes in. It can help any organization launch and maintain a thriving open source program.

“If you have more than 100 code repositories or 100 people that you’re trying to manage, you really can’t have someone doing it manually with spreadsheets anymore,” notes Jeff McAffer, Director of the Open Source Programs Office at Microsoft, in the guide. “Obviously, people still do it that way. But it starts to become ad-hoc and laborious. That’s where tools come into play. They allow you to scale.”

While launching and maintaining an open source program does require dedicated, task-specific tools, it is a mistake to assume that your organization must necessarily build its own tools from the ground up.

“Regarding existing tools and systems, my hope is that we’re quickly getting to a point where a company’s open source program office should not need to create any tools or technologies on their own,” said McAffer. “They should be able to find and use existing open source tools which can be used to manage their open source programs.”

Categorized Tools

The Tools for Managing Open Source Programs guide provides an exhaustive collection of categorized tools that any open source program can benefit from. These include Source Code Scanning and License Compliance tools, Bug Tracking tools, Release Management tools, and more. Are you familiar with FOSSology? It’s a Linux Foundation project that functions as an open source license compliance software toolkit capable of running license, copyright and export control scans from the command line. Have you heard of Docker Hub? It’s a cloud-based registry service that allows users to link to code repositories and build and test their images. These and many, many more useful tools are linked to and explained in the free guide.

Do you know how to answer questions like these?

• How are your project APIs documented?
• Have you laid out a Contributor Licensing Agreement that everyone can use?
• Have you picked the right license for your project?

Various tools can help you determine the right answers to these questions, and the Tools for Managing Open Source Programs guide is a great way to surface them.

Methodologies

It’s important to understand that using open source for business strategy requires its own methodologies and processes which are very different than those needed when using and releasing proprietary software. As the guide notes:

“Nobody said it was going to be simple to move your company into the world of open source. But plenty of other companies, including giants like Microsoft and Google have done this before you and have provided detailed road maps, code, suggestions, and more to make your own journey easier. The creation of an open source program office and the selection of a package of critical tools to get your efforts started are within your grasp. By collaborating on open source projects and inviting others to collaborate with you, your company can gain immeasurable benefits and drive its progress forward with energy and innovation.”

The Tools for Managing Open Source Programs guide is one of a new collection of guides from The Linux Foundation and The TODO Group that are all extremely valuable for any organization setting up an open source program. The guides are available now to help you run an open source program office where open source is supported, shared, and leveraged. With such an office, organizations can establish and execute on their open source strategies efficiently, with clear terms.

These guides were not produced in a vacuum. Far from it. The advice you will find in them grew organically out of many interviews with some of the world’s leading open source experts. We encourage you to check out the guides and stay tuned for our continuing coverage of them.

Also, don’t miss the first article in this series, on How to Create an Open Source Program, which explores everything from the role of the open source program office to how successful open source programs at companies like Google function.