Helping Employees Build the Case for Open Source Contribution
The career benefits of open source contribution are well-established. The business value for companies is also well known. However, I have noticed a significant challenge over the years: employee at many technical companies (even those with brand identity tied to open technologies) struggle to secure leadership approval for their time or other investment in open source. If the benefits are proven for companies, individuals AND the ecosystem we all depend on, why is this so hard?
I also know this challenge. Early in my career, I also a hard time finding the right words to unlock resources. On reflection, it was because I made a lot of assumptions about what decision-makers understand and value. Pitching investment in open source 'as the right thing to do', over something that needs to happen for the business are entirely different approaches. One is much more likely to result in those resources.
I have learned two things need to be true for employee advocacy on behalf of open source to be successful:
- Managers must understand, support and reward contribution as valuable to the business; and they need to be able to describe the same to their managers (and upward).
- Culture around contribution must exist in some form. Some product teams must lead by example, and those folks must be accessible as mentors and allies for those looking to do the same.
Note: There's maybe a third around open source projects themselves, being great showcasing contributions to help these conversations - but I'll write about that later. In advance, I always reference Drupal's credit and membership program and credits model as leading in this area.
Here are some resources and prompts to help with both of these points, I hope they help you and your organization as they have helped others.
Open source career mapping course and worksheet 🗺️
This is a version of a course I wrote internally for Microsoft (and released as a generic version the OSPO repository) called 'Open Source Career Mapping', which takes learners through a series of learning outcomes helpful to create a vision for their success, nd then map that to what their company cares about. If you prefer just the worksheet, here's the direct link.
As part of this, it can also be helpful to identify ways in which contribution is already providing value but not identified as such. For that I wrote "8 ways you may be contributing to open source right now".
Building a business case for open source investment - a framework💵
Sometimes an employee understands, and wants to pitch a specific type of contribution(or investment) based on risk they see. That may be security or concern for resourcing (solo maintainer) or they are actually just blocked getting something fixed. I built this framework to help employees step through their motivations, associated metrics, potential solutions and to finally - build a business case to advocate for that investment. Essentially allowing them to present the risk, and proposed solution in terms the business understands.
I think this could be a good chatbot, but haven't had time to test yet.
Document rewards alignment
If you work in or have an OSPO, then likely you have an internal documentation site. This is the place to clearly outline (as I did for Microsoft's OSPO) how open source aligns with your companies top level goals, whether that's security, collaboration, diversity, innovation. Leave as little guess work as possible.
If there is no manager, or company alignment, then that's perhaps a red flag that employees will burn out trying to advocate and it should perhaps be explicit about the scope of open source work as well.
Use InnerSource as a sandbox 🩴
For those who have never participated in open source and are nervous about getting started, the absolute best first step can be contributing to an internal project through InnerSource.
InnerSource is a software development strategy in which companies adopt an open source approach and culture to collaborate more effectively. - GitLab description
Through InnerSource employees can build capabilities needed, ask questions and grow into open source, if that's where their career goals take them!
Contributing to open source is good for the ecosystem. What's good for the ecosystem is good for business.
Helping employees understand the strategic pathways to unlock support in their company is critical for the open source ecosystem. I hope these resources help!
Note: business language is for business discussions, participating in open source communities language is be far more personal, and passionate. That's why contributing in the right thing to do :D
I am available for consulting sessions, or you can sponsor me on GitHub to support ongoing writing like this.