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Title

InnerSource Incentives and Disincentives

Patlet

Lack of awareness for incentives as well well as disincentives for InnerSource contribution decrease the chances of an InnerSource project receiving contributions; this is addressed by sharing a comprehensive list of potential incentives and disincentives.

Problem

Soliciting contributions to an InnerSource project in a corporate environment, where every potential contributor is fully utilized is a difficult task. Contribution will likely contribute only, if there is an incentive for them to do so and if disincentives are absent. Without awareness of these incentives and disincentives, a maintainer will likely face challenges actively soliciting contributions. It is important for Trusted Committers to be aware of and advertise incentives for potential contributors.

Context

  • Potential contributors in a corporate environment are most likely fully utilized and have no "free" time to contribute to InnerSource projects, especially when they are not directly related to their work.
  • Especially in early stages of InnerSource adoption, potential contributors as well as inexperienced Trusted Committers might not be aware of the incentives of InnerSource contribution.

Forces

  • The more awareness a Trusted Committer has for the potential incentives and disincentives for InnerSource contribution, the more likely will they be able to successfully advertise them and successfully solicit contributions.
  • The higher the incentive to contribute to an InnerSource project, the more likely it will receive contributions.
  • The more potential contributors are aware of incentives for InnerSource contribution, the more likely is their contribution.
  • Even small disincentives will likely deter potential contributors to contribute.

Solutions

The incentives and disincentives for InnerSource contribution depend on the concrete organizational context of the InnerSource program. This pattern provides a list of potential incentives and disincentives for InnerSource contribution, which allows both Trusted Committers and potential Contributors to quickly assess, which incentives and disincentives are present in their concrete context. These are listed in alphabetical order in the following two sections.

Potential Incentives

  • Achieving mastery in your craft
  • Autonomy in how contributions are crafted
  • Collaboration with like-minded people
  • Free stuff, such as e. g. free CI/CD infrastructure
  • Help other people grow personally, specifically as a Trusted Committer
  • Intellectual Challenge
  • Making work easier/more productive/more fun for yourself and your peers
  • Personal mobility within the organization, e. g. by collaboration with peers outside of your team, gaining visibility and the opportunity to move to different areas of the organization
  • Sense of Impact of ones contribution inside and outside of the organization
  • Showcasing your successes and receiving feedback and appreciation
  • Time to contribute, so that contributions can be made during working hours

Potential Disincentives

  • Absence or lack of free, essential development infrastructure such as e. g. CI/CD infrastructure
  • Conflicting InnerSource related goals or incentives in the leadership hierarchy leading to ambiguity and dissatisfaction by all parties involved in InnerSource
  • For managers: high transparency for their peers in how the managers staff contributes to InnerSource projects, especially when there is financial pressure and a significant amount of contributions are made outside of their "silo" and leading to local optimization
  • Local optimization, impeding contributions to "non-local" projects (different silo)
  • Monetary rewards for knowledge workers (see RSA Animate on Motivation (by Dan Pink))
  • No or lack of time to contribute during working hours, resulting in InnerSource being on-top effort
  • Too much freedom, resulting in fragmentation and lack of orientation and alignment

Resulting Context

Both Trusted Committers and (potential) Contributors are aware of the potential incentives and disincentives for InnerSource contribution. They can assess which incentives and disincentives are present in their context and thus make an informed and balanced decision, whether or not to contribute. It is less likely that potential contributors don't contribute due to unawareness of incentives. Trusted Committers can actively leverage incentives when soliciting contributions.

Known Instances

TBD

Authors

  • Georg Grütter (Robert Bosch GmbH)

Status

  • Initial
  • Drafted at the InnerSource Gathering Berlin 2025