By its very nature, research into multi-physical processes occurring in porous and fractured media requires a collaborative approach. An interdisciplinary approach has led to the adoption of collaborative software development paradigms in this field relying on software for scientific computing as research infrastructures. The development of open-source software has become a cornerstone of computational approaches in academia and has even spawned successful business models in the commercial world. This article is geared toward readers who want to learn more about potential benefits of open-source software in porous media research and who want to familiarize themselves with typical workflows required to become an active contributor to or user of open-source solutions for porous media simulation. The article puts general principles, motivations and concepts into the specific context of experiences and lessons learned from the authors developing the open-source software projects OpenGeoSys and DuMu^x.