Many developers want to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and developer productivity—especially when those developers are their own colleagues. But do their companies really care? Despite the endless DevOps and developer productivity slidedecks, not everyone has a strategy beyond "let's form another task force" or "let's have another weekly meeting" from management. Can a single engineer actually introduce InnerSource and change how work gets done in a big enterprise? Maybe! Can they burnout in the process? Well, let's talk...
We'll discuss introducing an open collaboration culture, also known as InnerSource, inside rigid corporate structures that are not willing to change. The ongoing AI hype can be a great leverage—an excuse to form internal guilds, secure funding, and get executive attention for collaboration and productivity initiatives. How to get started without a budget or official blessing from higher ups? How to find allies and not burn too many bridges? And how to show impact when everyone's obsessed with KPIs?