Evolution of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO): An OSPO maturity model | Chris Aniszczyk | February 2022

"Executive Summary: In our fourth TODO Group survey of open source practices, we found a positive evolution of the OSPO toward more professional organizations with greater dedicated funding and resources. This evolution fits the ongoing theme of continued growth and acceptance of OSS and development practices in organizations large and small. To gain more qualitative insights into how OSPOs were evolving, we interviewed leaders of noted OSPO programs, including some of the most influential technology firms, such as Red Hat, Microsoft, and VMware, as well as some one of the most iconic transportation brands and one of the largest media and entertainment companies. We asked them how their programs started and how they have evolved. Based on these interviews and the survey data, we mapped out a five-stage OSPO maturity model, from (1) using OSS coincidentally to (2) addressing compliance and license issues to (3) encouraging participation to (4) contributing code, and finally, to (5) incubating and opensourcing meaningful projects. In this report, we detail each of these stages and develop a handful of archetypes of OSPO organizations. As part of the process, we conducted three case studies of the evolution of three OSPOs in three different sectors—media, financial services, and transportation—each case structured as a journey through the stages of the OSPO. More than a couple decades into the OSPO movement, the role of the OSPO has grown to become a central source of expertise and a strong voice in developing and implementing technology strategy at the world’s forward-thinking companies."

The Evolution of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO): An OSPO maturity model featuring case studies from Bloomberg, Comcast, and Porsche | February 2022

by Chris Aniszczyk, Chief Technology Officer, Linux Foundation, Co-Founder, TODO Group