As the use of open-source grows and deployment timelines shrink, management of open source is a growing concern that many organizations are struggling with handling effectively.
Most organizations start off managing all of their open-source dependencies in a spreadsheet. This is a process that generally involves someone from legal, engineering, product, or security tracking down the correct engineers to fill out a form that lists every open-source component used to help build a product. Then, legal and security review the dependencies against license policy and security vulnerability databases to ensure the software is compliant and secure. Finally, these reports are finalized and shared with auditors for IPO, M&A — or reports are shared with customers and partners that require compliance.
5 Reasons Why Using Spreadsheets for Open Source Management is a Recipe for Disaster discusses:
The process for managing open source software licenses with spreadsheets
Trends in open source vs. proprietary software usage
The 5 most common open source management "fails"
Enterprise and industry trends in open source adoption
Steps to take to move off of managing open source in spreadsheets
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