Siemens Journey from Inner Source to Open Source

This document is a technical report detailing the evolution of Siemens' Inner Source platform, SiMPL, over a decade. It outlines the initial challenges faced by Siemens in fostering collaboration among different product development teams, which often operated in silos, leading to duplicated efforts and insufficient knowledge sharing. The report describes how SiMPL was developed to address these issues by promoting cross-business unit collaboration through shared component libraries and utilities for mobile and web applications. The document further explains the goals of SiMPL, which include the selection and reuse of open-source software (OSS), the application of OSS technology stacks, and the provision of common components and best practices for web and mobile application development. A significant milestone discussed is the recent open-sourcing of the Siemens Element design system, which represents a key advancement in Siemens' digital strategy and aims to enhance knowledge exchange and development practices across the organization.