Open Source Software Adoption Process (OSSAP)

Increasingly organizations are viewing open source and 3rd–party software license management as part of their software quality development process, and are evolving their existing quality checklists to include all or part of the following blueprint.

The following eight-step blueprint is based on a survey of current organizational practices and Protecode’s practical experience in the last four years. Part of this experienced is gained by carrying out numerous software IP audits for technology organizations on the verge of a merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, or before their software product is shipped out of the organization (into the end-market or to a client).

Eight Steps of OSSAP 

1. Establishing a Software Licensing Policy
2. Software Package Pre-Approval
3. Existing Portfolio Assessment
4. Incoming 3rd-Party Software Assessment
5. Regular Software Assessment
6. Real-Time Library Check-in Assessment
7. Real-Time Automated Assessment
8. Pre-shipment Software Assessment