Abstract
Given the success of the open source phenomenon, it is not surprising
that many organizations are seeking to emulate this success by adopting
open source practices internally in what is termed InnerSource. However,
while open source development and InnerSource are similar in some
aspects, they differ significantly on others, and thus need to be
implemented and managed differently. To the best of our knowledge, there
is no significant account of a successful InnerSource incentivization
program. Here we describe a comprehensive InnerSource incentivization
program which was implemented at Huawei. The program is based on
theories of motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, and also includes
incentives at the individual, project, and divisional level, which helps
to overcome the barriers that arise when implementing InnerSource. The
program has had very impressive early results, leading to significant
increases in the number of InnerSource projects, contributors,
departments, and lines of code contributed.