Selection criteria for the sustainable procurement of open source software

19 March 2025

Open source solutions are increasingly being demanded in public sector procurement practices, but there is still a great deal of confusion when it comes to the award criteria. The Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA) has formulated an easy-to-understand position paper - we have read it for you.

Anyone in public administration who is confronted with the requirement to procure open source solutions should know the differences to proprietary software. Otherwise, there is a risk of making mistakes that could jeopardize both the success of the project and the involved FOSS ecosystem.

This paper provides public administration with guidance on sustainable procurement of open-source software, helping them identify and select high-quality offerings which will also strengthen the open-source ecosystem in the long run, ultimately supporting the goal of digital sovereignty.

The position paper provides an easy-to-read and understandable overview of open source software in general as well as the community and business models in this environment. The difference between Makers (actively co-developing parties) and Takers (the freeloaders with the dumping prices) is also clearly explained (using different terms, of course). It is clearly emphasized that the price as a decisive award criterion is to a certain extent even against their own interests.

If public-sector contracts are awarded based solely or primarily on price, this disadvantages applicants/bidders who follow a sustainable business model.

A few illustrative practical examples are also included to illustrate the impact of award errors. For example, unpublished forks that are diametrically opposed to re-usability and, of course, highlights from the underbidding competition:

Companies X and Y won the contract by offering unrealistically low prices and later approached us for consulting on scaling and performance issues. We [...] referred them to our standard subscription service, but there was no budget left for this in the project.

Against this background, the OSBA calls for the following „Criteria for Sustainable Procurement“:

Relationship with the software manufacturer / community
Ensuring upstream publication of modifications
Ensuring high-quality level 3 support
Securing the supply chain through support for core components

The appendix contains specific formulation aids (which must of course be adapted to the project in question) - as A criteria (exclusion criteria to be fulfilled) or as B criteria (with a point scale for the degree of fulfillment).

Our conclusion

For a general understanding of how open source software works and how to support its sustainability, at least the first chapter is worth reading for everyone. Anyone who is responsible for the procurement of a content management system under public procurement law or is an agency applying for tenders with a focus on open source CMS should definitely read the 11 pages of content and 4 pages of appendix.

It should be noted that the position paper is quite vendor-focused. This is understandable when you consider the members of the OSBA. Some parts therefore need to be adapted for the procurement of most open source CMS. For example, criteria such as “insider knowledge of planned developments” due to proximity to the manufacturer or the employment of core developers are likely to be difficult to present in the context of fair competition.

Source

The complete position paper is published on the OSBA website and can be downloaded as PDF in English or German language. You may as well download a copy of the PDF here. The position paper is published under CC BY SA 4.0 International and may therefore be distributed under the same conditions.