Assessing open source software health in organizations’ intake processes: A qualitative study on the practitioners’ perspective

The increasing reliance on Open Source Software (OSS) in organizations’ software supply chains necessitates robust mechanisms in the intake process to ensure sourced components’ long-term viability and maintenance. Assessing OSS project health in the intake process is complex due to the wide range of socio-technical factors involved. This study aims to explore how the health of OSS projects may be assessed by practitioners from organizations’ intake perspective. We conducted a qualitative interview survey with 17 industry experts to identify aspects and related metrics of OSS health. These were mapped against literature and two existing industry frameworks. A subset was identified and applied through a case study at a large international automotive manufacturer. 21 health aspects with 72 connected metrics were identified covering community productivity and stability, orchestration, production processes, and outputs. Many metrics map against industry frameworks, while qualitative aspects are missing support. Special consideration is needed when assessing and comparing the health of OSS projects, including their life-cycle stage, complexity, governance concentration, and strategic importance for the focal organization. The case study shows that not all aspects and metrics may be leveraged due to resource constraints and complexity. Instead, subsets of metrics need to be prioritized, and applied in a structured approach using qualitative and quantitative means. The study provides a foundation and a starting point for developers in introducing health assessments of OSS components in their intake processes, while also pushing convergence towards a common corpus of health assessment in practice.