OSPO Strategy Challenge #3: Should This Project Be Open Source?

Community Voices
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Opening a project on GitHub does not automatically make it an open source strategy.

In this week’s OSPO Strategy Challenge, you’re faced with a decision many teams underestimate:

You’ve built a framework that works well.
It solves a real problem.
There’s no immediate plan to monetize it.

Someone suggests: “Why don’t we just open source it?”

:bullseye: The Challenge

This scenario unfolds over three consecutive phases, each representing a common but avoidable failure mode:

  1. Unclear intent, no shared understanding of why the project is open source

  2. Missing governance, no license, partial openness, no ownership

  3. Accidental criticality, users depend on it before you’re ready

You must choose one of three strategic paths:

  • A purpose-driven, community-first approach

  • A “let’s see what happens” release

  • Or keeping the project internal until clarity emerges

Each option comes with trade-offs across:

  • Speed of Innovation

  • Scalability

  • Security

  • Trust

  • Adoption

  • Costs

:brain: Why this matters

Most open source failures don’t happen at scale, they happen before the first external contributor ever shows up.

This challenge is designed to help OSPO leaders and teams reason about:

  • Intent vs visibility

  • Governance vs speed

  • Adoption vs responsibility

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Your turn:
Should this project be open source, and what must be true before you say yes?

Share your reasoning below.

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