Step 1
Define
Frame the reference data: software families, evaluation grids and the criteria that matter for your context.
Open method · Eclipse Foundation
Qualify and select your open source software with method and structure
Eclipse-QSOS is a free and open methodology to describe, evaluate and compare open source software in order to make decisions transparent, auditable, documented and reproducible.
The Method
Four steps, one repeatable process
Each step produces reusable artefacts, so evaluations can be shared, challenged and updated over time instead of being rebuilt from scratch.
Step 2
Evaluate
Score each candidate against maturity and functional criteria on a simple, auditable 0–1–2 scale.
Step 3
Qualify
Weight the criteria according to your own requirements, constraints and risk appetite.
Step 4
Select
Compare weighted results side by side and document a decision anyone can reproduce.
2.0 method
Maturity criteria
Legacy
Project's history and heritage
- Age
- History
- Core team
- Popularity
Activity
Activity inside and around the project
- Contributing community
- Activity on bugs
- Activity on functionalities
- Activity on releases/versions
Governance
Project's strategy
- Copyright holders
- Roadmap
- Project management
- Distribution mode
Industrialization
Industrialization level of the project
- Services
- Documentation
- Quality assurance
- Source code modification
What you get out of it
Why QSOS makes a difference
Defensibility
Scored artefacts that survive audit. Justify your choices with evidence-backed evaluations.
Reusability
CC-BY-SA 4.0 evaluations travel between teams. Share knowledge instead of duplicating work.
Auditability
Transparent and reproducible process. Every score is traceable and verifiable.
FLOSS depth
Maturity axes generic tools ignore. Evaluate what really matters for open source sustainability.
Mutualization
Share the workload across projects. Build on community evaluations and contribute back.
Context-weighted
Same software, different contexts, different scores. Adapt evaluations to your constraints and priorities.
Why open
A method that evaluates open source must itself be open.
OSS governance cannot be credibly outsourced to proprietary analysts. The community that produces open source should also own the tools that assess it, distributed under a free licence to guarantee reuse, objectivity and peer-reviewed improvement.
Where QSOS is going.
Legacy
Scattered tools, XML grids, fragmented usage.
Reboot
Single modern web app (TypeScript / Nuxt).
Eclipse
Anchored in the Eclipse Foundation for governance.
QSOS Agent
GenAI & MCP augmentation for assisted evaluation.
Join and contribute to Eclipse-QSOS.
Help build the open standard for qualifying open source software.