Inner source means different divisions work together. Each division has their own job families and titles which aren’t consistent with each other. So we define a few inner source roles to create a common understanding across divisions.

Capability

A capability is a group of related GitHub repositories that does something meaningful (e.g. a product or significant product feature). A capability isn’t a role, but is an important concept. Each role is per-capability e.g. a capability has an owner & a team of maintainers.

Contributor

“Contributor” is anyone who has made a technical contribution to the capability. This is usually a code contribution to one of the repositories, but may be in other ways like contributing to technical designs.

Maintainer

A contributor recognised as a trusted expert with the time to maintain the capability is a “Maintainer”. This role – the most important inner source role – has a dedicated maintainers page.

Owner

“Owner” is the technical owner & lead maintainer of a capability. This page documents the owner in more detail.

Capability Coordinator

A “Capability Coordinator” improves the efficiency of cross-divisional alignment of different stakeholders, a bit like a capability project manager.

Product Representative

A “Product Representative” is a divisional product expert, often a product owner.