Open source: The fundamentals of a successful project launch

Updated September 21, 2023

What an exciting time it is to contribute to the open source community! The software industry has embraced the open source philosophy. Financial institutions like Capital One have gone open source first — encouraging engineers to use, contribute to, and even launch, open source projects.

Here at Capital One, the Open Source Office drives our Open Source strategy. We partner with our Legal & Security teams to manage the risks of using and contributing to OSS projects and facilitating the launch of OSS projects under the Capital One GitHub.

In my work for the Open Source Office at Capital One, I have supported the launch of over 20+ open source projects. Launching an open source project requires a lot of investment — both in terms of time and effort — and launching it under the Capital One name comes with a huge responsibility. I would like to share key insights into the priority items that we considered when we launch OSS projects, and how they can apply to your project as well.

Competitive analysis for an OSS project helps the project team get an understanding of the needs of the consumer, along with the consumer groups most interested in what you’re building. Competitive analysis can also help in other aspects such as:

• Name selection
• Selecting the technology stack for the project
• Understanding the “pain points” so you can focus on them in your project

It also provides insights into the community-building efforts needed to build and maintain a robust community for your specific project. And as we know, a healthy community is the foundation of a successful OSS project!

Naming an OSS project can be an equally simple and complex task. You can choose a creative name using your imagination & original ideas, or a descriptive name that describes the good or service that the project is providing. Creative names like giraffez can be cool, catchy and fun; it also reduces risks related to trademarks in addition to standing the test of usage over time. 

Descriptive names can be bland and boring but they don’t have to be. They are also often easily searchable because they tell what the project provides or does. This is definitely not something to underestimate since it’s important to choose a name that is easy for your users to both remember and find.

TIP — Keeping the name of the OSS project de-coupled from the project code might be preferable just in case you need to change the name before or after project launch.

Good OSS projects should state the license terms for using, modifying, and distributing the original as well as the modified code. So, picking and documenting the license terms used in your OSS project is important.

The Open Source Initiative is a non-profit organization with global scope that was formed to educate about, and advocate for, the benefits of OSS. They maintain a list of license terms that they have approved and categorized. Make sure to research the different types of licenses and copyrights to find the right one for your project and community goals.

Certain licenses allow your code to be used in other commercial products, and you should choose your license depending on your penchant to allow such usage. Also, if you are working for an organization that requires you to get approvals before launching an open source project, then make sure to get those approvals.

You have a good starting product, a name, the right license term — what next? All you have to do next is just put it on GitHub, right? Not right…

From the time that you first start developing the code, it is never too early to think of when, how, and where you will launch your OSS project. 

• At a conference

• When a new version of a related technology is being released

• At a hackathon

• In a blog

• In a book or white paper

• By an expert in the field

What is important is not to wait until the code is ready to think about the launching efforts. Try to give a preview of the product in various forums, websites, blogs etc. before the official launch. This can help you get supporters who may be keenly interested in helping you co-develop the project before a public launch. Marketing is as important to an OSS project as it is to a commercial product — it is just looks a little different! 

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it, but be creative and open about developing and reaching into a wide network for publicizing the project. Hydrograph, Capital One’s third OSS  project, ran a preview at an internal conference in the fall of 2016 and was publicly launched at SXSW in March 2017. The preview helped garner support from the community before the launch, which helped with the development and early adoption of the project.

If you feel exhausted reading the list of things involved in launching an OSS project, you will be glad to hear this — YOU ARE NOT ALONE! All the things that we’ve talked about point to one main objective. Nope, it is not to build a great product (although that is important). It is to build a great community around your project which will translate to delivering a great product together. 

• Market research to ensure you’re developing the right project

• A catchy name that people can easily find and remember

• A good license that your community can use

• A pre-launch plan to build interest and reach contributors and users

Keep these in mind as you start to build your OSS project and you’ll be in a great place to continue building your project and community post-launch!