The U.S. Government just took a big commitment towards open-source software. The “Federal Source Code Policy — Achieving Efficiency, Transparency, and Innovation through Reusable and Open Source Software” paper sheds some light on the Government’s plan to improve the acquisitions, building, and delivery processes for Federal agencies.
The problem
Ever since the Cybersecurity National Action Plan, President Obama has been admitting that the Government needs help to refresh its tech infrastructure. The way the Federal Government spends funds on software (more than $9 billion annually) is part of that same problem, because a large portion of those funds are spent ineffectively.
“The U.S. Government is committed to improving the way Federal agencies buy, build, and deliver information technology (IT) and software solutions to better support cost efficiency, mission effectiveness, and the consumer experience with core Government programs. Each year, the Federal Government spends more than $9 billion on software through more than 50,000 transactions. A large portion of Government software—including proprietary, open source, and mixed source options—is commercially-available “off the shelf” (COTS) software that is developed and owned by either private vendors or an open source provider, requiring no additional custom code to be written for its use in the Federal Government,” shows the paper.
This means that out of that huge budget, some transactions are made for software that is not needed – because there might already exist an open-source option, or in some cases, the specifics for the ordered software might be wrong. We can’t blame the Federal agencies entirely, because identifying a possible open-source solution can be difficult. “However, when Federal agencies are unable to identify an existing Federal or COTS software solution that satisfies their specific needs, an agency may choose to develop a custom software solution on its own or pay for its development. When agencies procure custom-developed code, they are not always in a position to make their new code broadly available for Federal Government-wide reuse. In some cases, agencies may have difficulty establishing under the terms of the contract that the software was produced in the performance of a Federal Government agreement. Furthermore, even when agencies are in a position to make their code available on a Government-wide basis, they do not routinely make their source code discoverable and usable to other agencies in a consistent manner,” explains the paper. This led to duplicative acquisitions for the same code in some cases.
The solution
In order to prevent similar missteps, this policy lays out steps meant to ensure that new custom-developed Federal source code can be made broadly available for reuse across the Federal Government. The reuse of custom-developed code across the Federal Government will have significant effects for the American taxpayers as well, since this will reduce Federal vendor lock-in – depending on a single supplier for a product, remove duplicative costs for the same code, minimize the integration challenges, and increase the overall transparency of the Federal Government.
Although code reuse will have a significant impact on its own, benefits can also come from code made available to the public – Open Source Software. Companies, and every user for that matter, will not only save precious funds, but will also be able to contribute to the improvement of these Federal code projects through feedback and bug reports. Several Federal agencies and component organizations have already begun publishing custom-developed code under open source licenses or in the public domain. Even if it might seem like public service, the Open Source model is actually a win-win situation for everyone involved.
This policy will focus on 4 major objectives:
• Provide guidance to covered agencies13 57 on software procurement considerations that must be made prior to acquiring any custom-developed software. This applies only to developed in the performance of a Federal agreement;
• Establish policy requirements for Government-wide source code receipt and reuse, including requirements for covered agencies to require delivery of source code produced in the performance of a Federal Government agreement and, subject to certain exceptions, make it broadly available Government-wide;
• Establish requirements for releasing code in the public domain or as OSS, including requirements for covered agencies to secure the rights necessary to make some custom-developed source code releasable to the public as OSS; and
• Provide instructions and support to facilitate implementation of this policy.
The paper mentions: “Within 90 days of the publication date of this policy, the Administration will launch Project Open Source, an online repository of tools, best practices, and schemas to help covered agencies implement this guidance. Project Open Source will be accessible at https://project-open-source.cio.gov.”
It would be impossible to have 100% code sharing right from the start, that’s why this policy stipulates that participating agencies shall release at least 20% of their custom software each year, while covered agencies are strongly encouraged to publish more than 20%. The pilot program will run for the next three years, with an evaluation break after two years meant to decide whether to continue the program or not.
We mentioned Obama’s tech revolution because more than anything else, this policy is about improving the government’s infrastructure. That’s actually a good thing for the tax payers as well, but one has to wonder: How much inefficient spending had to be made before realizing something needed to be changed?
