Open Source Software Release: A Guideline for the Publication of Software under the Open Source Status

In the past few years, Open Source (OS) has become a topic for a far more heterogeneous community for both users and developers than it was before. Simultaneously, commercial aspects have gained a broad interest within the field of OS. More and more OS releases arise. The question becomes, what does it mean to publish software under an OS-license? Which working steps and aspects need to be taken into account for the publishing? Releasing sources under an OS license touches many different technical, legal, business and project management aspects. We developed a plan of procedure in the form of a workflow that involves all of these aspects. This plan will systemize the initial procedure of publishing software and gives decision support to everybody who deals with it. Our goal is to provide a checklist to expose potentially relevant questions at the right time and in a logical sequence.