Governance Strategy
OpenCrowd's Governance offering helps IT organizations formalize their open source software adoption processes to govern and manage its usage risks.
Challenges
IT Organizations that have already begun adopting open source software often do so initially in an ad-hoc fashion. Approval and sourcing processes can be semi-formal with limited tracking and participation. As organizations adopt more open source software, issues with its use can sometimes mount. Legal concerns are one of the most frequently cited concerns at organizations that do not have an inventory of their open source usage. Limited knowledge of open source licensing and a lack of clear guidelines on usage can compound these concerns.
Infrastructure operations concerns also frequently arise. The frequent releases of open source projects can result in organziations having a large number of different versions in production. This situation is not what infrastructure management teams typically have in mind when agreeing to open source adoption.
IT organizations also want to assure they are using open source for the right projects for the right reasons. Managing adoption risks while getting the most out of adoption requires balancing sometimes opposing objectives of different stakeholders with different adoption goals.
Enterprise software portfolios also can suffer from distributed decision making on what open source software to use. Redundant technologies can be selected for the wrong reasons.
What we offer
Establishing an effective governance model is critical for IT organizations to successfully continue adopting open source software and avoid adoption pitfalls. OpenCrowd works closely with its clients to adapt their current governance structures to manage open source software according to their risk profile. An effective governance model must appropriately manage adoption risks and address the concerns of a range of stakeholders.
Specifically, the Governance Strategy helps our clients:
- Educate stakeholders on open source governance issues and providing options to address them
- Revise or establish guidelines for open source usage and legal guidelines
- Modify existing governance where open source is currently not being addressed
- Identify and address gaps is governance automation that can streamline management of open source
- Reach consensus on the best governance model among the range of participants
Achieving consensus on a governance model can be a great challenge within organizations. OpenCrowd's approach for defining governance models was created with consensus building in mind as a continual process through the project.
For more information on our Governance Strategy Offering, please contact our sales team.
