I'm looking at using some open source code in my ASP.NET web app (specifically dapper). Management is not a fan, because open source is seen as a risk that has bitten us before. Apparently previous developers have had to rewrite things after having open-source components fail.

The pros seem to be:

• It does a lot of stuff for me that would otherwise involve either lots of boilerplate code or Microsoft's recommended but slower solution (Entity Framework).

Cons:

• It's complex enough that if it were to fail suddenly in production, I would be hard pressed to fix it. However, it's in use on a much higher-traffic site than mine, so I don't think it'll end up being a high risk portion of the project.

What is the consensus here? Is it unwise to use open source code in my project that I don't know/understand as well as I do my own code?