Knights and Gold Stars: A Tale of InnerSource Incentivization

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive incentivization program for InnerSource at Huawei, based on motivation theories, which significantly increased participation and contributions in internal open source projects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel incentivization framework tailored for InnerSource, addressing implementation barriers and demonstrating early success at Huawei.

Findings

Increased number of InnerSource projects and contributors.

Significant rise in lines of code contributed.

Enhanced cross-departmental collaboration.

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 that 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.