Measure an open source program by whether it advances the organization’s goals—not by how many issues, pull requests, or contributions it records. Start with the outcomes you want, turn them into questions, and choose a small set of measures that can answer those questions. Then assess the health of important projects and dependencies, and explain results with context and examples.
What does success mean for an open source program?
There is no universal success score for an open source program (OSPO). The right measures depend on the organization’s goals and on what the program is responsible for. A count of issues or pull requests, without context, says little about whether the program has delivered useful outcomes. The OSPO Book recommends connecting goals to questions and then to metrics through a goal-question-metric approach: OSPO Book.
Build your measurement plan around three distinct questions:
- Is the program delivering organizational outcomes? These might include executing an open source strategy, improving policies and processes, building collaboration with upstream projects, developing internal capability, reducing friction for teams that use or contribute to open source, or improving compliance processes.
- Are important projects healthy enough to support the organization’s use and collaboration? The relevant signals may include responsiveness, contributor sustainability, security, adoption, governance, and documentation usability.
- Are program resources advancing the goals? Connect staff time, funding, or other support to the feature, risk reduction, or community outcome it is intended to support.
These questions prevent activity measures from becoming stand-ins for impact. A busy contribution queue might reflect productive collaboration, but it could also reflect unresolved maintenance needs; the number alone cannot tell you which.
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How to choose useful program measures
Start with goals, not a KPI list
For each goal, write the question that would show progress and select a measure that can answer it. For example, if the goal is to improve upstream collaboration, ask whether priority contributions are accepted and useful, whether critical issues are resolved, or whether collaboration with the relevant community has improved. If the goal is to reduce friction for internal teams, ask whether teams can use or contribute to open source with fewer process obstacles.
Possible program-level indicators include:
- Progress on priority upstream features or resolution of critical issues.
- Whether contributions are accepted and useful to the upstream project.
- Changes in the quality or consistency of collaboration with external communities.
- Whether internal teams can use or contribute to open source with less friction.
- Whether policy and compliance processes work as intended.
Treat these as candidates, not universal targets. Pick only those that follow from your own goals and can inform a decision.
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Read survey figures as context, not targets
The Linux Foundation’s 2023 State of OSPOs report found that, among 285 valid cases for its question about primary responsibilities, 53% selected collaboration with open source organizations, 51% selected developing and executing open source strategy, and 51% selected establishing and improving open source policies and processes. These are reported responsibilities in that survey and sample—not population-wide prevalence, a benchmark, or a performance goal for your program. See the 2023 State of OSPOs report.
Workforce figures can help explain why organizational participation matters to project sustainability, but they are not direct OSPO KPIs. CHAOSS’s 2024 guide reports that 62.5% of maintainers in a 2023 Linux Foundation survey were employed full time on their projects. The guide also cites Sophia Vargas’s 2023 Google study: 30% of sampled developers contributed only during professional time, while 52% contributed during both personal and professional time. These figures describe particular surveys and samples; they do not establish a target for an individual program. See the CHAOSS guide to organizational value.
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How to assess the health of projects you support
For projects that matter to your organization, combine several signals rather than treating one number as a health verdict. CHAOSS suggests four starter indicators, which should be adapted to the project’s purpose and circumstances. See the CHAOSS project health metrics.
| Indicator | What it tells you | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first response | Time between an issue or change request being opened and the first human response. | Consider whether the project’s response pattern meets the needs of its users and contributors. Bots or automation can distort this measure. |
| Change request closure ratio | The relationship between change requests opened and closed during a period. | Read it alongside the project’s workflow and backlog; a ratio alone does not explain why requests remain open. |
| Contributor absence factor | The smallest number of people responsible for 50% of contributions, a signal of contribution concentration. | Concentration can indicate sustainability risk, but interpret it in light of the project’s size and structure. |
| Release frequency | How often the project issues releases, including fixes. | Release patterns can inform expectations for fixes and features, but cadence alone does not prove project health. |
Not every indicator suits every project. Repositories within the same project can serve different purposes, and automation may affect response and closure data. Involve project participants in deciding what a measure means and whether it is useful.
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How to evaluate dependency viability and risk
For software your organization consumes, assess viability across four areas: compliance and security, governance, community, and strategy. The right evidence depends on the project and the organization’s risk exposure. CHAOSS’s project health guidance and organizational value guidance provide relevant measurement context.
- Compliance and security: Consider how security issues are reported, responded to, and resolved, along with the compliance processes relevant to your use.
- Governance: Examine how decisions are made and whether the project’s governance is understandable and workable for your organization’s needs.
- Community: Consider contribution response and closure patterns, contributor distribution, adoption, and the usability of documentation.
- Strategy: Ask whether the project’s direction, maintenance, and release patterns fit the organization’s plans and reliance on it.
Do not rank unlike projects on one universal scale. Compare projects only where their roles and characteristics are similar, and choose axes that fit the decision—such as responsiveness, contributor sustainability, release patterns, or security posture.
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How to report results to leadership
A useful report pairs each measure with the goal it supports, the period and scope measured, what changed, and an example of why that change matters. Include the resources committed and explain how they connect to the result. A contribution accepted upstream, for instance, is more informative when the report says which organizational need it addressed and what changed for users or maintainers.
Do not reduce open source investment to a single return-on-investment figure. CHAOSS notes that one ROI number is unlikely to capture the full value; stories and examples help explain what quantitative indicators show. See the CHAOSS organizational value guide.
How to keep metrics useful and fair
Metrics are signals for investigation and improvement, not automatic verdicts about people or projects. CHAOSS’s introduction guide emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to project-health metrics. See CHAOSS’s metrics introduction.
Quick Recap
- Involve the people who contribute to or maintain a project when choosing and interpreting measures.
- Account for bots and automation where they can affect response or closure counts.
- Compare only projects with sufficiently similar roles and characteristics.
- Do not turn individual activity measures into quotas or use them in ways that could be weaponized against contributors.
- Revisit measures when goals, project conditions, or decisions change.
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