In 2012, the National Weather Service (NWS) plans to replace the aging Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) with a modern service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based system. AWIPS II was designed with an open development environment in mind, allowing for faster research to operations. This paper describes how the National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Science and Technology (OST) Systems Engineering Center (SEC) plans on enabling a collaborative environment to effectively incorporate new science and technology into the AWIPS II operational baseline. Unlike in AWIPS I, this new science and technology will not only come from NWS development organizations, but also other NOAA development organizations, proving grounds such as GOES-R and test beds, and academic and research communities. To do this effectively, a balance needs to be found between agile software development practices, necessary software engineering discipline, and improvements in testing to ensure high quality science infusion into the AWIPS baseline while minimizing maintenance costs. OST/SEC has worked with development stakeholders to prototype and document software development environments, policies, processes, guidelines, standards, and testing methods that will encourage agile prototyping and development in the AWIPS Development Environment (ADE). The development process includes policies and procedures that are clear, identify roles and responsibilities, are flexible based on size and complexity, and include effective training and workshops. To support this process, OST has established an in-house AWIPS II Architecture team to provide effective guidance building within this new architecture and a Development Management team to advise on all phases of the software development life cycle. Collaboration portals have been established to provide a common dynamic environment for innovators to collaborate on ideas and concepts and to share information in alignment with the NWS Strategic Objectives. Results of early prototyping have been very positive and resulted in allowing the development organizations to learn this new architecture and collaborate on the best design and coding solutions. Organizations like National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R Series (GOES-R) Proving Grounds, OST, and NWS Regional and Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) local developers have already prepared applications for deployment to the AWIPS II baseline. The expectation is that the governance described in this paper will allow AWIPS II to become an “Open Source” software development platform for the NWS and related hydrometeorological community.