Identifying exogenous drivers and evolutionary stages in FLOSS projects

Article


Beecher, Karl, Capiluppi, Andrea and Boldyreff, Cornelia 2009. Identifying exogenous drivers and evolutionary stages in FLOSS projects. Journal of Systems and Software.
AuthorsBeecher, Karl, Capiluppi, Andrea and Boldyreff, Cornelia
Abstract

The success of a Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) project has been evaluated in the past through the number of commits made to its configuration management system, number of developers and num- ber of users. Most studies, based on a popular FLOSS repository (SourceForge), have concluded that the vast majority of projects are failures. This study's empirical results confirm and expand conclusions from an earlier and more limited work. Not only do projects from different repositories display different process and product characteristics, but a more general pattern can be observed. Projects may be considered as early inceptors in highly visible repositories, or as established projects within desktop-wide projects, or finally as structured parts of FLOSS distributions. These three possibilities are formalized into a framework of transitions between repositories. The framework developed here provides a wider context in which results from FLOSS repository mining can be more effectively presented. Researchers can draw different conclusions based on the overall char- acteristics studied about an Open Source software project's potential for success, depending on the repos- itory that they mine. These results also provide guidance to OSS developers when choosing where to host their project and how to distribute it to maximize its evolutionary success.

KeywordsOpen Source software; Software evolution; Software repositories
JournalJournal of Systems and Software
ISSN0164-1212
Year2009
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY-ND
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10552/1316
Publication dates
Print2009
Publication process dates
Deposited17 Aug 2011
Additional information

Citation:
Beecher, Karl and Capiluppi, Andrea and Boldyreff, Cornelia (2009) Identifying exogenous drivers and evolutionary stages in FLOSS projects. Journal of Systems and Software, 82 . pp. 739-750. ISSN 0164-1212. Series:
82;5.

Page range739-750
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https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8640z

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Accepted author manuscript
JSS_8229.pdf
License: CC BY-ND

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