The article proposes an approach to the analysis of open source projects for exposure to the risks of a sudden change in the nature of project development associated with external reasons of political or economic personal interest of individuals involved in the development. The aim of the work is an attempt to offer representative features that allow us to highlight the development bias in open source projects at early stages. For this purpose, groups of features are identified: community characteristics, characteristics of the development process and characteristics of the project code base.