Took them a while! Although Inner Source isn’t a new term, or even a Microsoft coined one, it has been around for years. And the Redmond based technology firm is going all-in into it.
Catch up on what Inner Source is, here.
But basically, Microsoft is moving to adopt formally open source development methodologies inside the company by taking transparent, open source development practices and applying them inside a single organization.
This report from Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet talks about what kind of changes to principles that the company is set to apply internally.
Going forward, teams inside Microsoft will be able to freely share and edit each other’s code, create new branches based on the existing code, and all that fund stuff. Code testing will become a part of the programming process, along with more and better documentation for the projects.
These will not necessarily be shared to the public, unlike is the case with open source, but these processes will be shared by teams across the technology giant.
Obviously, this should come as no surprising, considering how friendly Microsoft has been towards open source software lately.
Since admitting its love for Linux, the company went ahead and bought one of the largest open source development platforms on the Internet, GitHub.
Foley reports that Microsoft has posted a couple of job offerings in recent months that indicate the company’s interest in adopting Inner Source principles and practices. First is for a Program Manager, and this was followed by a more recent offer from just last week.
This goes according to plan, and it could be a radical change to how software development is done at the company.
Perhaps, it may even bring a little more synergy to Microsoft products and services.
