Running a CERN Open Source project

The first step of open-sourcing a project is to get formal approval by all involved entities.

Setting up

Once there is green light to open-source the project, we recommend to consider the following steps and procedures for setting up and during the lifetime of a project.

1. Select and apply a license.
2. Our recommendation is to host open source projects at GitHub.
   • Setup a organization as group for multiple projects.
   • For existing projects: Migrate to GitHub
3. Be aware and define how to contribute to the project

Operation and Maintenance

Once the project is open source and available for everyone, it enters the operation and maintenance phase. During this time, it is important to engage with the community, provide support and keep a steady release cycle.

1. Organize and involve the community
2. Set up for good coding standards (Issues, CI/CD, )

End of Life

Keeping open an open source project running needs resources which should be dedicated long-term when deciding to open-source.

If this is not the case anymore, there should be enough time for the project to try and move responsibilities to the community for long-term maintenance. If that fails, it is important to inform the community and users about the status of the project.

This helps future users to make the decision to avoid the use of this project, or to decide taking over maintenance.

1. Dedicate resources for operation and maintenance before open-sourcing a project
2. Define the status of the project (still developing, bugfixes only, no support at all) and clearly inform the community about this status (Readme, Forum)
3. Find members of the community to take over maintenance